Blood Work
by acclutch94
Summary: Matt and C.J. have to reconcile their marriage with the dangers of their job while taking on a new case helping Matt's college chemistry tutor figure out who is sabotaging his research.  Just borrowing Aaron Spelling's characters and creating a couple.
1. Chapter 1

Matt and C.J. finally made their way back to L.A. After 2 weeks in the Caymans that concluded with a wedding most of their friends had anticipated for years, they then set off for parts unknown on their honeymoon. No one back home knew where they went and they decided to keep that to themselves. With the press trying to follow their every move and had now become more intrusive in their lives, this was just one thing they wanted to keep private.

Arriving back at the penthouse after another 2 weeks away, they knew it was time to resume their lives, albeit with a new relationship between them. A stack of messages awaited them and Uncle Roy had tried to cull as many as he could, but a couple definitely needed their personal attention. Murray had kept most of the business end in check and had begun to rely more on some new hires in the legal department, but still anxiously awaited C.J.'s return for a couple of matters. Still, a month had passed with both away.

Matt and C.J. arrived bright and early the Monday morning they decided to start back at work. They kissed in the elevator ride up, but simply held hands as they came out when Matt took those messages from Chris, who was waiting at her desk with an "its about time" look on her face.

"Most of these are congratulatory messages on the wedding, but there is one from a Maxwell Longman who says he needs to see you pronto. He said he was your tutor or something in college? I think he said chemistry, but I'm not sure. He wants to hire you." She explained.

"Maxwell Longman, hum….oh yeah, Organic Chemistry. I hated that class, I mean why does a business major have to take something like that anyway?" Matt asked as he thought back.

C.J. smiled, "Well, I wasn't particularly fond of College Algebra either, but if I wanted my degree, I had to take it. A high school teacher once told me that the required classes everyone has to take are like a sample platter at a restaurant. They want you try a little bit of everything before you make a final decision."

Matt looked at her skeptical, "Yeah well, I took to Organic Chemistry about the same way I took to sushi that one client tried to get me to taste that time. I didn't get it…you know back where we came from we called that stuff bait."

C.J. and Chris chuckled, "So I take it, that wasn't your strongest class, hence the tutor?" C.J. inquired.

"Yeah, you know he had a way of explaining all those molecules and elements and stuff. He used football terms I could understand….he talked about atoms playing defense and how some were stronger than others and how some would go on the offense. I tell ya, I don't know how I could have passed that class without him." Matt reminisced.

C.J. squeezed his hand and pulled him down just far enough to give him a little kiss on the lips before saying, "Well, I better get to my office and check on those forms Murray said he left there for me. Let me know when we have something to research."

He squeezed her hand back and then let her go, thanked Chris for the message and walked up to the phone on the wet bar. He dialed the number on the message.

"This is Hippocrat Pharmaceutical Labs, how may I direct your call?" he heard from a female voice.

"Could you connect me with Maxwell Longman?" Matt asked.

He was met with silence for a couple of seconds and then the voice said, "I'm sorry, but it appears Mr. Longman is out of his office at the moment. He is probably at the hospital in the lab. Do you want to leave a message?"

Matt grabbed a pencil, "Yes, tell him that Matt Houston called. I'm running late today so I wanted to tell him I'd meet him at 1 instead of noon for lunch at Methodist Central Hospital that was all."

"Oh, he's not at Methodist, he's at Woodland Memorial," the lady said.

"I'm sorry, I must have gotten my hospitals mixed up, thank you for correcting me. Have a good day." Matt said as he wrote that down.

"You're welcome, have a nice day." She said as she hung up.

Matt poured himself a cup of coffee and then one for C.J. with two sugars and two creams. He smiled as he stirred it in for her, thinking about how normal all of this felt being back at the office. He had made her coffee before and knew exactly how she took it, but today he was bringing it to his wife and the thought of that warmed his insides. He loved doing things for her, even if it was something as simple as getting her a cup of coffee.

He carried both into her office, stopping for just a second as he watched her reading over legal papers and working. Then he sat the cup down beside her on the desk and she looked up at him and smiled.

"Why thank you, Mr. Houston, for anticipating my caffeine needs." She said as she picked up the cup and took a drink.

"You are more than welcome Mrs. Houston…I thoroughly enjoy taking care of all your needs." He said as he waggled his eyebrows.

C.J. started to blush just a little bit and then asked him, "So did you get ahold of our potential client yet?"

"No, not yet. He was out of his office and working in a lab at Woodland Memorial. I think I'll head over there and see if I can find out what's going on. Wanna come with me?"

C.J. looked at the stack of papers on the desk. She was torn, she really wanted to go with Matt. Even though they had literally spent almost every waking hour together for the past 4 weeks, she couldn't get enough of him. However, there was this mountain of paper she just needed to get through and when she was done with it, that would free up her time to work more closely with Matt on this new case. C.J. had always been one to get work done first and play second. So, despite the fact that all she wanted to do was go with him now, she knew it would probably be best if she finished the work and then helped him with Baby once they had the case. So reluctantly she said, "I should probably stay and finish these papers. Then we can get some research done on this case, if we have one, and together we get that done fast. The sooner we get that done, the sooner we get focus on some of those other needs we were talking about." She winked back at him.

He leaned over and gave her one nice slow open mouth kiss and slowly pulled away as he said, "that sounds like a plan. I love you. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I love you," she said back. As he left the room she thought about how nice it was to kiss him, to hold his hand, to have his arms around her. It seemed like the two of them always touching each other in some way and it warmed her insides to think about it. "Back to work" she told herself. The sooner she was done with this the sooner she would be with Matt again.


	2. Chapter 2

C.J. turned back to the papers and got through most of them before drinking the last of the coffee Matt brought her. Suddenly she felt dizzy and had a sharp pain in her abdomen. It caused her to close her eyes for a second. She looked up and the pain continued. She took a couple of deep breaths and slowly got up and walked over to the couch. She laid down and it took about 30 minutes but the pain finally subsided.

She started to get up and looked back to make sure Chris didn't notice her feeling ill. She thought back to what she ate this morning thinking it must have been something that didn't agree with her. Nothing struck her as tasting funny when she ate it though and since Matt ate the same thing, surely he would have had a similar reaction if something was bad. Still, she had noticed in the last few weeks that her appetite wasn't the same and it seemed like her body just didn't want her eating a lot right now. She knew she wasn't pregnant, that was confirmed for her just a few days ago, but there was definitely something going on. She slowly got back up and went back to her office. Only two more files and then she was done.

Matt made his way to Woodland Memorial and approached a receptionist at the front information desk to ask about Hippocrat Pharmaceutical Labs and where he could find them. The older lady behind the desk pointed to an information board on the opposite side of her and Matt walked over and found them listed in suite 303B. He nodded to the lady and then took the elevator up to the lab.

He knocked and opened the door. The room resembled a maze of cages, tables with microscopes and small refrigerators. Matt walked in carefully and announced himself, "Hello?"

A small wiry man with thick glasses and a lab coat approached him with a smile on his face, "Matt Houston, its been a long time! I see you got my message." He said as he shook hands.

"Why yes, yes it has Max. Chris, my secretary, told me you called saying you needed my help, so here I am."

Max looked relieved, "Yes I did, but that was two weeks ago, I was afraid you had forgotten all about me."

Matt shook his head, "No, I was just out of town for a while." He held up his left hand, full of pride and said, "Just got back from my honeymoon."

Max looked a little stunned, "Wow, someone tied you down. Never thought I'd see the day. Anyone I know?"

"You remember that friend of mine who used to come visit during semester breaks?" Matt asked.

Max's eyes widened, "You don't mean that drop dead gorgeous brunette who had initials for her name"

Matt chuckled and replied, "Yes, C.J. Parsons, now Parsons-Houston. It took us longer to get together than it should have so I decided we needed a longer honeymoon. But we are both back and ready to take on cases. So, what's going on Max?"

Max looked serious then and turned around to where two young people, one male, one female were looking through microscopes and writing notations on notepads. He told them, "Hey guys, look why don't you take your morning breaks early and hit the coffee shop downstairs. I just want to catch up with an old college buddy of mine. Have a donut too, on me. Just tell them downstairs to put it on our account."

The two workers did just that and the female gave Matt a wink as she walked past him. Matt just smiled and looked down for a second and then back up at Max who closed the door behind the two.

"Houston, look, what I'm about to tell you is top secret. It could be revolutionary and could save thousands of lives every year. Amazing actually. I mean this could be really big. I found something, something that could take so many risks out of surgery, out of childbearing out of…." He had to take a breath he was so excited about his project and just talking about it brought goose pimples to himself.

Matt nodded his head trying to follow, Max now reminding him of his accountant Murray and decided to do exactly with Max what he does with Murray all the time. "Ok, just take a deep breath and slowly tell me what it is you've found."

Max nodded his head and took a deep breath, "I found a compound that if mixed with the right medications causes the blood to clot, even if there are microbes or other factors in the blood that would resist clotting. This means that hemorrhaging from any medical procedure, or even from an accident or gunshot wound…that would all be a thing of the past. Doctors, EMTs, they could administer this drug and save thousands of lives every year! It would change dramatically how and when we decided to even perform operations. Think about all the people who are not 'eligible' for a surgery that would dramatically increase their quality of life that would be with this medication."

Matt understood the enormity of the breakthrough, but didn't understand why Max needed his help. "That sounds amazing Max, but why do you need me?"

Max then went from excited to serious again, "Because someone is trying to sabotage my research." He led Matt over to his file cabinet and pulled out a stack of files. "These are the records for the last 10 weeks. Each file contains the results from the lab mice for a two week time frame. We've been working on this for over a year and the results have been consistent up until 6 weeks ago. At first I thought that maybe the mice became acclimated to the medication and desensitized to it over time. I have to admit, I got a little depressed too. But then I noticed something new in the toxicology. NSAIDs were found. We control the lab very carefully. Not even the hospital cleaning staff is allowed in. So you can see where we obviously have someone tampering with my experiments."

Matt looked confused, "Ok, Max, Organic Chemistry was a long time ago and in case you forgot I barely passed. What are NSAIDS and how do they alter your results?"

Max smiled and thought for a second before responding, "Ok, the injection I'm giving the mice is like extra defensive linemen coming in and protecting a barrier, like the end zone. NSAIDs, another medication are like a trick play using a 12th man on the field to sneak past the defensive line. My drug is designed to stop bleeding and NSAIDs thin the blood making it harder to stop. The drug I designed is good, and would work even with patients with thinning blood, but using an NSAID would void it if given in excessive amounts. Of course, no doctor in his right mind would prescribe an NSAID to a patient about to have surgery."

"So what you're saying is you think someone is coming in here and giving your mice a dose of this NSAID and making it appear that your compound doesn't work at all. Why would someone do that? From what you've told me this drug could save lives. Why would anyone want it not to work?" Matt asked.

Max took a deep breath, "Because some people value money more than they value human life. Houston the pharmaceutical industry is cutthroat. I'd be lying if I didn't say that this discovery could really put me in the history books and make me famous, probably rich too. Although I would probably just use the money to fund more research, not everyone thinks the way we do Matt. L.A. Pharmaceutical Co. has been trying for the past year to steal me away from Hippocrat, but I keep turning them down. They focus more on profit than research to me. Their head of research, Samuel Dawes comes around all the time and I know he's been trying to find out exactly my secret formula. I just never catch him in here. But, Houston, someone is tampering with the animals. I waited til I was sure, but I'm approaching a serious deadline here. The FDA will flag us if we aren't moving ahead with the human testing, and I won't go forward unless I am sure it won't cause any damage to anyone. Please help me find out exactly what's going on."

Matt patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry Max, you've got me. I'll need what you can give me, that's not too top secret. To start with, I need the names of everyone who has access to this lab. Everyone, from the head guy that runs this place down to the last janitor with a key, then I need a list of anyone with a motive to try to steal your discovery or try to sabotage it. Can you get me that?"

Max smiled, "I can print that out in a matter of seconds…hold on." He walked back to a computer, printed out a page and brought it back to Matt. As he shook his hand again, rather fiercely he said, "Thank you Houston, oh thank you so much."

Matt told him goodbye and then left. When he got in his car he called the office and got Chris. "Chris, can you send this call to C.J.'s office? I have a list of names I need her and Baby to do some background on."

"C.J. is downstairs taking a shower, I can take the names." Chris offered.

Matt gave her the names, but thought to himself, 'Why is she taking a shower?' She took one this morning, well they both took one this morning together. It just seemed unusual…however, that meant that right now his wife was in his office without any clothes on. That thought made him put that car in drive and make a beeline for that office.


	3. Chapter 3

C.J. closed her eyes as the water cascaded off her shoulders. She hadn't used the shower in the gym all that often before, but after finishing those last couple of documents she decided a nice hot shower would do her a world of good. That pain earlier seemed to come out of nowhere. She knew she just hadn't felt great for a few days now, but she hadn't felt anything that made her need to take a break like that. As she got out and reached for the towel, she felt 100x better.

She got dressed quickly enough and headed back upstairs when Matt met her.

He looked a little disappointed when he said, "You look overdressed," as he put his arms around her waist.

She smiled back up at him, "Sorry about that, but I thought we had a case," she said just before she kissed his lips, a brief little kiss.

He looked down into her eyes and answered, "yea I think we do, and you're right we should probably get to work on it, after this" as his mouth claimed hers for a solid couple of minutes. Not that she complained, his slow, intense kisses drove her crazy.

After leaving her breathless he took her by the hand and led her to the couch and turned on Baby. The rest of the afternoon they punched in names as he explained what Max had told him.

She was impressed, "Think about all the good that medicine could do. Not just here in the U.S. either, across the globe. This really could change the world as we know it." At that point Matt looked down and C.J. picked up on it. "What is it Matt?" she asked softly, she could read him better than anyone and she knew there was something personal about this case for him.

He rubbed her hand in both of his and explained, "You know my mother died having me, she bled to death. If this drug would have been found by then..." he stopped and swallowed.

C.J. put her other hand on his cheek, "I know...and this could save another little boy having to go through what you went through." She turned toward him and kissed his cheek. "Let's let Baby process all this for a while and go get some food, huh?"

He took her hand and kissed it, "I love you, you know."

"I know, I love you, Matt" she said as she leaned over and kissed him again. He squeezed her hand and they walked out to the elevator.

They ended up at a nice little romantic restaurant pretty close to the beach house they were now sharing. They talked about when they were going to get more of her things and move them in, how many of those flower smelling lotions and shampoos were going to end up in his masculine bathroom, to which she laughed and asked him why he thought it was his anymore. She was still trying to take in the fact that they were now married and it was all for real now.

A couple of glasses of wine later and she started feeling nauseous again.

Matt picked up on the new body language and asked her, "You ok?"

She looked back at him and replied, "Yes, just tired I guess. First day back after a month off."

He called for the check and they made their way to be the beach house. His arms slipped right around her waist as he kissed her as soon as they got in the door. They continued kissing as they made their way to the master bedroom they now share. Before they got there his jacket was off, her shoes were off and both their shirts were coming off.

An hour later they lay wrapped up in each other trying to come back down to earth again. He kissed her forehead as she relaxed in his arms and brushed the hair off her cheek. She drifted off quickly, he didn't. He wasn't taking a single moment for granted anymore. He was committing every moment with her to memory, the feel of her skin, the taste of her lips, her body, the smell of her hair, absolutely everything. After a few minutes of just taking her in, he drifted off himself.

She got up before he did the next morning. It took a minute as she gazed at him sleeping peacefully with his arm still around her. His bare chest moving up and down as he slept. She carefully got out of bed and made her way downstairs to get some juice and start some coffee. She tiptoed back through the bedroom to the bath and turned on the shower. Most of her stuff was already moved in, including the bathroom scale. She hadn't really checked in a while so she decided to have a little look and it was about what she expected. When she looked up, she felt a little tinge in her side. She shook it off and got in the shower.

"You got up too soon" she heard as she came back into the bedroom. Matt was still laying in bed, but on his elbows.

She sat down beside him on the bed, "Too soon for what?" she asked.

He didn't respond with words but pulled her carefully back into the bed on top of him and kissed her on the mouth, his tongue slipping in right away as he rolled her back over to her side of the bed.

She pulled back from him and smiled, "We need to get to the office, as much as I would love staying with you in this bed all day long" she said as she stroked his face.

Matt sighed, "I know, but you can't blame me for trying to convince you." He tried to look injured.

She reached over and kissed him again, "Come on, I have coffee waiting downstairs."

He kissed her again and groaned as he got up and headed for the shower. She, of course, took in the view as he slowly moved out of sight and then headed downstairs herself.

She sat on the balcony drinking her coffee, this time without any cream. For some reason, it just didn't appeal to her. Matt came out and joined her. He noticed her coffee appeared black and that she didn't seem to have drank very much.

"You feel ok? I've noticed you haven't been eating as much lately." Matt asked a little concerned.

She smiled at him, "Yea, well sort of, I just don't seem to have much of an appetite lately. I'm sure it will pass."

He looked her up and down, "Ok, well, if it keeps up maybe you should call your sorority sister, Carol and set up an appointment. Alright?"

She nodded her head, "I'm fine, but yes, if I keep feeling like this I will. I promise."

He took her by the hand and squeezed it before they headed out to his car and drove in.


	4. Chapter 4

They made their way up to the penthouse, kissing in the elevator, but holding hands when the doors opened. They looked in each other's eyes as they got out. Chris interrupted their gaze.

"Baby is all fired up and I have coffee made on the bar for you already," Chris tells them.

"Thank you Chris" Matt said as he walked over to the bar and C.J. went straight to the couch.

She started looking over Baby's print outs when Matt asked her, "You want another cup?"

"No thanks, I think I'm fine." she said as she read over the printout and began clicking buttons to bring up the pictures.

Matt sat down next to her, "So, what do we have?"

C.J. clicked buttons and brought up the first picture, "Ok, here we have our client Maxwell Longman, head of research for the Hippocrat Pharmaceutical Company. He got his B.S. in Chemistry from Rice and his Pharmacy Certification from John Hopkins. He was right, Houston, he's considered one of the top five scientists in the country, especially in the area of hematology."

Matt rubbed her back and then took her chin in his hand and tilted her to face him and said, "Its Matt, not Houston" he kissed her softly with his hand now on her cheek, "I always wanted my wife to be one of the only people to call me by my first name and hearing you call me Matt reminds me every time how lucky I am to have you as my wife." He kissed her again and she smiled at him.

"I know, its just habit, but one I don't think I'll have a hard time breaking. I love being your wife...I love you." she said as she kissed him again.

"Ok, so back to the case," as she broke his embrace and went back to Baby. "He thinks someone is tampering with his research animals. Since his drug is supposed to stop bleeding, it appears someone is giving the animals a blood thinner to work against his compound and make it appear ineffective."

Matt added, "And he's supposed to start testing on humans next month since the research started a year ago. From what he told me L.A. Pharmaceutical Company has been headhunting him for a couple of years now and their head of research comes around all the time."

C.J. clicked more buttons and brought up a picture, "Samuel Dawes, Head of Research for L.A. Pharmaceutical Company, B.S. from Stanford in Chemistry and Certified from Harvard Medical. Considered one of the top researchers in the field until about 3 years ago when one of his projects resulted in 50 patients being infected with a deadly bacteria after being part of a study in a lab he was running. According to Baby, the compound he was working on also enhances blood clotting. He claimed then and still claims he was set up, sabotaged."

Matt nodded his head, "Just like Max, and if Max has the breakthrough he thinks he does, it will really put him on the map leaving Dawes out in the cold. Focusing his entire academic career on one area that will no longer be a concern to anyone is bound to leave the man a little upset."

C.J. nodded her head and then looked back at one of the printouts. "And here's something that is probably going to fuel that anger. According to Baby Dawes was the lead on the study but there was another researcher named, Maxwell Longman."

Matt looked confused and read over the printout C.J. handed him. "Max didn't tell me about this. So there's probably a pretty strong rivalry here. Dawes not only has a financial motive but also a personal motive if he took all the blame for the failed study and now Max is getting all the credit for a successful one. I think I need to have a little meeting with Max again."

C.J. agreed but added, "Ok, but what about access? It doesn't appear that Dawes has access to the lab. You have motive but not opportunity yet." C.J. clicked more buttons and brought up two pictures side by side, one male and one female. "So according to Max no hospital staff are allowed in the lab, not even janitors or security, so the only people allowed in the lab or with keys to it are his research assistants and the head of the hospital with keys to every room. These are the assistants, Ben Taylor and Madison Wilkins. Both are chemistry graduate students, premed, and both have their tuitions paid for by Hippocrat."

Matt recognized them, "So they need their jobs with this project to continue to go to school. Doesn't seem like they would want negative results, it might jeopardize their scholarships."

C.J. shook her head, "Actually Matt, if the project goes into the human testing phase, they won't be needed. They primarily run tests and work with the animals. Once that part of the study is over, they have to seek another paid internship and its just as cutthroat as the industry itself."

Matt digested that, "So they do have a motive to draw this study out. How big a scholarship are we talking about C.J.?"

C.J. looked back at the print out, "$68,000 a year, it includes tuition and a stipend for living expenses."

Both look surprised and Matt said, " I'd say that's a pretty strong motive." C.J. agreed and then clicked more buttons.

"Last but not least, we have this man, Daniel Peterman. He is the head of Woodland Memorial Hospital. He has access to every room, lab and office in the hospital building itself. According to Baby, his financial records indicate that he puts more money in savings than he reports to the IRS from Woodland Memorial."

"So somehow he is making a little money on the side, huh?" Matt asked.

"More than a little, try $125,000 more." C.J. told him.

Matt put his coffee cup down and said, "Ok, I think I'll go have a little talk with Max again. Stay here and keep working with Baby to see if you can get any more details on that failed drug study from 3 years ago, see if our two graduate students have any connection to L.A. Pharmaceutical, like if they've been inquiring about a new job lately, and see if you can figure out where Peterman is getting his extra income. I'll see if I can't get a few more answers myself. Oh, and decide where you want your husband to take you to lunch." He said as he winked before stepping down and getting into the elevator.

She smiled and turned back to Baby, punching more buttons.

Matt knocked on the door of Room 303B and it swung open at him knocking him down. It caught him off guard and he didn't quite make out the person running in down the hallway, only that they appeared to be wearing a lab coat. He started to take off after them when he heard a moan inside the lab. He went in and found Max on the floor with his glasses broken, barely hanging on the side of his face.

Matt went over and helped him as he tried to stand up, "Max, are you alright? What happened here?"

Max stood up, adjusted his glasses and went right over to his file cabinet clearly going into panic, "No, no, no….my files…my files….someone's come in and taken them and….no…no…they contaminated my lab…no…all my research….no" he said as he stared to hyperventilate.

Matt walked over to him, turned him around to face him and told him, "Alright just calm down, now tell me, exactly what you remember. We'll figure all this out."

Max took a deep breath, "I just finished typing up today's lab results when I heard a noise. Ben and Madison, my assistants, aren't coming in today, they have exams….so there shouldn't have been anyone here. I came around the corner and all I saw was a folder headed right for my face. I got knocked down I guess and then you were at the door." He walked over to the open file cabinet and rummaged around for a second and said, "They're gone, the toxicology files, they're gone. I can't prove the cause of the results from the last 6 weeks without them. What am I going to do?" he asked.

Matt took a deep breath, "We're going to find out who took them and why. But first, we have a couple of more things to discuss Max."

Max looked confused, "Like what? I told you everything about my research." 

Matt gave him a serious look, "No, not everything. You did tell me about your research on this study, but you didn't tell me about the study 3 years ago that wasn't so successful. The one you and Samuel Dawes worked on together. Why Max? Why didn't you tell me about that? I mean I never would have figured you as one that was into fame and fortune."

Max looked back at him just as serious, "I'm not in it for that. Look Houston, I didn't tell you about that study because I'm not particularly proud of it. We screwed up somehow. I don't know how. Everything was going along fine until the human testing phase. And it wasn't the same combination of drugs, if that was what you were going to ask next. My compound is different. Although there is something familiar about what's going on now and what happened then." He said as he started to look contemplative.

Matt noticed, "What is it? What's familiar?"

Max looked back and said, "Well for starters both studies were done in this hospital, but more than that, everything was going fine with the animal research on both projects. Until just before the human testing phase, then the results started to look askew. I told Sam we should wait and make sure, but he was convinced it was an anomaly and pushed us ahead anyhow." Max looked down, "That's why I hired you Houston, I can't live with another study that harms innocent people willing to let me use their bodies to test a drug that could save lives. I took an oath, even if I'm not an M.D. I just can't live with that on my hands."

Matt took a deep breath again and told Max, "Look, you aren't going to. Someone is tampering with your study, and we are going to find out who it is and stop them. Now, I have one more question. How was it that you and Dawes were working together? You work for rival companies and you yourself said the business is cutthroat. Why would two companies work together on something like this?"

Max said simply, "There was talk of a merger. L.A. was trying to buy us out and it really did look like it was going to go through. Some unknown benefactor stepped in and stopped it from happening at the last minute, giving us enough money to keep us afloat and L.A. had some civil legal issues with the relatives of that study. Before that though, well, they were trying to see who to keep and who to fire. I had to work on that study and I really did think I was doing some good. I'm glad we didn't merge though. Sam makes a good fit with L.A., they both rush things, and if look back at the history of scientific discoveries, you just can't rush these things. You have to be sure."

Matt patted him on the back and told him to call the police to report the break in, that he should ask for Lt. Hoyt, give him Matt's name and then told him he would call him later today. Matt was thinking about a stakeout of the lab for that night, but wanted to run it by C.J. first after going over any more research she may have uncovered. With that he left.


	5. Chapter 5

C.J. sat at Baby looking over a variety of documents from 3 years ago. The first set were newspaper reports on the botched drug study. According to the papers, L.A. Pharmaceutical had to pay out $2 million worth of damages to relatives of those affected with the contaminated blood in the study. There were also stories on the potential merger between Hippocrat and L.A., making it appear to be all but certain. Apparently some unknown person or foundation made a donation. C.J. thought to herself, 'I wonder if that donation was claimed for income tax purposes. Then it could be traced.'

She picked up her cream cheese danish and finished it off. Chris would stop at the bakery around the corner from her house from time to time and knew C.J. loved these. She was just savoring that last bite when she got that pain again. It was a little stronger this time and seemed to radiate to her left shoulder. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath while slowly laying herself on her side on the couch. She had to take a few deep breaths as the pain continued to throb for a couple of minutes and she felt she might actually lose the danish she just enjoyed so much. After another 30 minutes or so it did start to die down and then she felt exhausted and fell asleep.

Matt woke her up, sitting on the floor beside the couch with his hands on her arms, looking very worried he said, "C.J., are you ok, honey?"

She blinked and started to sit up slowly, "Yes, yes I'm fine, just tired that's all."

Matt didn't seem convinced as he rubbed her arms, "You don't look fine, hun. Listen call Carol, ok, see if you can get in today to see her. I'll drive you down there."

C.J. shook her head, "No, I need to finish this first, then I'll call her. I promise. I found some interesting things about that study."

Matt got up and sat beside her, slipping his arm around her waist, looking at her for a second with a look of serious concern and then back at Baby as he listened to her explain. "L.A. Pharmaceutical and Hippocrat were set to merge 3 years ago when that study went bad. It appears L.A. was buying out Hippocrat, but between the civil suit filed against them as a result of the study and an unknown individual donating a large sum of money to Hippocrat, well, it never went through."

Matt nodded his head, "Yea, Max told me as much. He also said that the two studies were conducted in the same hospital and the tampering started at about the same time during the study."

C.J. digested that, "That can't be a coincidence. Someone has to be behind both. But why? I mean, this drug could do so much good, why would anyone try to stop its development? It makes no sense."

Matt shook his head, "It has to be money…that's the only explanation. We need to find out who has the most to gain financially from both studies not succeeding. We have the two graduate students, but they are only working on this trial, not the one 3 years ago and we have the hospital administrator with access."

C.J. pushed a few more buttons and brought back up the newspaper article, "Matt, look, both those grad students Ben Taylor and Madison Wilkins were among the research assistants on the study and Peterman was the administrator at the time too."

Matt nodded his head, "Ok, so it looks like all 3 had access to both and we know the grad students have a motive. I just have a hard time believing that they would want to jeopardize their future reputations on a study that failed. I mean the payoff is substantial, but its not huge and it certainly wouldn't be permanent." He looked back over at C.J. who appeared to be thinking but also looked a little pale. He rubbed her back and changed the subject, "Why don't we get out of here and get some lunch, huh?"

She rubbed her neck and said, "That sounds good, maybe that little deli down the block would be nice. Their turkey subs are really good."

Matt smiled and kissed her, "Sounds good, I'll meet you at the elevator. I just have a phone call to make."

C.J. got up and Matt reached for the phone. "Dr. Carol LaMaster's office" said the voice on the other end.

"Ah, yes, I would like to make an appointment for today if I could for C.J. Parsons-Houston." Matt replied.

"Has Ms. Parsons-Houston seen Dr. LaMaster before?" the receptionist asked.

"Yes, well not professionally, they are good friends, but she needs to see her professionally today." Matt answered.

The lady on the line told him to hold and then came back, "Well, Dr. LaMaster is in surgery all day today but she does have an opening tomorrow afternoon at 1pm. Will that work for you?"

Matt was disappointed but decided that tomorrow would be ok so he answered, "Yes, that will be fine. She'll be there." And then he hung up. He knew C.J. and he knew she didn't just take naps in the middle of the morning. He also knew she wasn't eating as much as she normally does. No, something was off and it bothered him. Ever since his uncle had told him about Bill and his wife only having one year together before she died and then living through the nightmare of thinking C.J. had died at the hands of Robert Tyler just a couple of months ago, he didn't take anything for granted. He was thoroughly enjoying his life as her husband and he was going to make darn sure it stayed that way.

C.J. had gathered her things and was holding out her hand as he approached her at the elevator. They headed down and ended up at that deli. After getting their sandwiches C.J. asked if Max shared anything else.

"Well," Matt said in between bites, "there was a little excitement when I got to his lab."

C.J. asked in between her own bites, "Excitement? What happened?"

"Someone stole a couple of files, the toxicology files in fact that proved the animals were tampered with and that the serum was being undermined by NSAIDs. I kind of ran into the thief as he was running out of the lab." Matt explained.

"Ran into him…" C.J. repeated that and gave him a look, "you mean literally or do you mean he threatened you, pointed a gun…"

Matt smiled, "I mean literally, I was knocking on the door when he/she pushed it open and ran out. I would have chased him down but I saw Max on the floor inside. He's fine by the way, just shaken up. Although the thought of someone not cleared by him personally in his lab sent him into a serious state of panic."

"I'll bet, those scientific experiments could be considered compromised if the intruder was in there for long. I'd panic too." C.J. reasoned.

Matt leaned over the table, "No I mean, picture Murray's reaction if we told him our stock dropped by 50 points today."

C.J. almost spit out what she was drinking, but held her composure until she swallowed. All of which Matt just thought was adorable. "So, he more or less completely freaked out." She said.

"I tell ya, C.J. its more than just a job for him. I mean its like the drug is his whole life, its almost like he's fanatical or something." Matt explained.

C.J. took his hand on the table and said, "He puts his heart into what he does and he really wants to help people. I think that's why you two get along so well. You are so much alike." He kissed her and they finished their lunch and headed back to the office.

He still planned on conducting the stakeout, but thought it might be best if she went home tonight and slept. Her finishing most of her lunch was a good sign but he still wasn't convinced everything was fine. At least she would see Carol tomorrow and hopefully she would tell her it was a case of jetlag that was lingering and a few days off to rest would be the remedy. He, of course, knew exactly how to keep her in bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Hoyt met Matt and C.J. as they got back from lunch. He didn't appear to be in the best of moods. They rode the elevator up and held hands as they made their way into the penthouse where Hoyt waited for them.

"I get in to the office this morning. All set to sit down and fill out all the reports the chief wants on my officers, when I get a phone call. Some guy name Maxwell Longman calls me and tells me that there's been a breach in one of the most secured medical facilities in town and that what was missing could cost thousands of people their lives.." his voice raising with each word. "I'm thinking…anthrax….a sample of anthrax got out and some maniac is going to unleash it on L.A…..how am I going to explain this to the chief…to the mayor….the press!" Hoyt had to slow himself down. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the antacids and started popping them like they were candy.

Hoyt took a deep breath, "I get there, expecting the worst, hazmat already on the way when he tells me he's missing files. And that YOU told him to contact me directly."

C.J. tried to hold back a little smile and then turned to leave Matt and Hoyt and go in her office. Matt watched her leave and gave her a little sarcastic looking smile back as she waved when she got to her office. He turned back to Hoyt who looked like he was about to have a stroke. He patted him on the back and said, "I did tell him to contact you, it was a burglary and I needed to head out. He just gets a little excited that's all. This research is very important to him and it could very well save thousands of lives if it makes it all the way through FDA approval. Coffee?" Matt offered as they reached the wet bar.

Hoyt took a deep breath, "No thanks. So what's the case, industrial espionage?"

Matt nodded, "Something like that, these drug companies appear to be really competitive."

Hoyt chuckled, "I'd say so, you know last year we had a murder case involving a research assistant. It went cold, but in the investigation the killer seemed to be after some files from a study the woman was working on. Somehow a rival drug company came up with the exact file that was missing from the dead woman's apartment but we never could place anyone from the company at the scene or even in the state at the time. I hate those, cold cases that is. Just knowing someone took another person's life and got away with it. The dead girl was all of 20 years old." Hoyt just shook his head.

"What was the cause of death?" Matt inquired.

Hoyt thought back for a second and then it came to him, "Potassium poisoning. Took the M.E. a while to find it too, it looked like a death by natural causes until the tox screen came back. Mack didn't even mean to have the blood work tested for it, he was checking for insulin or something, but it came back with extremely high levels. He searched the body again and found needle marks between her fingers or something. Oddest cause of death I've ever seen."

Matt digested that for a second, "Seems like whoever killed her knew something about medicine."

Hoyt agreed, "Yeah, that's why I became convinced when we found that file with Hippocrat Pharmaceutical that someone there had been involved."

Matt looked at Hoyt shocked, "Hippocrat? Hoyt are you sure that's who had the file?"

Hoyt looked back at Matt, "Yeah I'm sure why? Why do you think I had this case on my mind today, its your friend who works for them, the one that sent me into an anxiety attack this morning."

Matt looked down for a second trying to make sense of this. This was all probably just a coincidence, but still….what project had this dead research assistant worked on and for whom? So he asked, "Do you remember what company the dead woman worked for and what the subject was?"

Hoyt gave Matt another irritated look, "Well, not off hand, California Drug or Pharma….I don't know something like that, it was a year ago. You have any idea how many homicides I've worked since then. Look, when I get back to the office I'll send you a copy of the file if you want it. Its just sitting in the cold case file cabinet gathering dust. Like I said, I hate these, we know who died, we know how and we might have an idea of who, but no justice is done because we can't prove anything or tie it to one specific person."

Matt gave his friend a sympathetic look and said, "I'd appreciate being able to look it over and maybe, just maybe I can help bring the killer to justice. One less file gathering dust, huh."

Hoyt nodded, told him to keep anxious clients out of his hair for the rest of the day and he would get that file over to the Houston Inc. building right away.

Matt picked up the phone when he left and called his Uncle Roy who had been taking a few more days off romancing some old female contact he had met back in the company. "Uncle Roy…yeah its me your favorite nephew….look I need to conduct a stakeout tonight and wanted you to back me up….I know its kind of late notice….no I understand you have a life…..Uncle Roy I don't need any details on what you and Lucy have planned, I just thought you might like to help keep me out of trouble tonight….fine….I'll fly you and Lucy wherever you want to pay you back for spoiling your vacation….thank you Uncle Roy…no, no special attire, just casual, we'll be hiding out in a hospital lab….meet here at 7….good….see you then."

Matt put the phone down went to the couch to take a nap. He knew it would be a long night and he needed a couple of hours to be on his toes. After the nap he headed over to C.J.'s office. She seemed to be staring at a legal document, squinting her eyes. "You look like you are working too hard Mz. Houston."

C.J. looked up at him and put the legal document down, "Maybe, I was thinking of taking a little break for a minute, I'm still a little tired."

Matt looked concerned again, "Listen are you sure you don't want me to take you down to see a doctor. I'm sure I can find one that will take you today."

C.J. smiled at him, "No, actually I was thinking of taking another shower downstairs. The one I took yesterday really left me invigorated." She winked at him, "Care to join me?"

Matt's face changed from concerned to restrained excitement, "I think I can handle that. Oh Chris…" he said louder, "Mz. Houston and I will be downstairs…if anyone calls take a message would you?" and with that C.J. stood up and put her arms around his neck, his went around her waist and he took her mouth and delivered another slow, smoldering kiss. "Come on" he said in that low sexy voice of his as he led her downstairs. As soon as they got to the bottom step their clothes started coming off. They ended up in the shower where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves for the next two hours.


	7. Chapter 7

By the time they got back up to the penthouse, Chris was gone. In her place was a small stack of messages. Matt took them and flipped through them, none seemed too urgent. Most were more congratulations on the long awaited wedding. He smiled as he read some of the comments, like the one from Randy his football buddy from college, simply put, "Its about time!" or from Melanie, the blond from high school who was just as attracted to all the males in the school that were attracted to her, "Yea, yea Houston! I knew you two made a beautiful couple!" He put the messages down and picked up the phone to call Max.

"Hello?" Max answered.

"Hey Max its me Houston, look I was wondering if you've told anyone about your suspicions about the tests being sabotaged." Matt asked.

"No, are you kidding? If the FDA finds out, if Hippocrat finds out, if L.A. Pharma…" he sounded like he was going into panic mode again.

"Max, Max, listen, that's good. We want the one doing this to think we haven't figured him or her out yet. Let me ask you, how closely do you watch all the activity in the lab every day?" Matt asked.

"Very closely, that's one reason I only have two assistants. This serum will have my name and my reputation attached to it. I have to make sure everything that is done, is done under my direct supervision." He answered.

"Ok, so the NSAID could not have been delivered during lab hours. You are sure you never leave the assistants alone, not even to go to lunch or to the bathroom?" Matt just wanted to double check here.

"No, there is no way a NSAID could be given during the day. We all leave the lab and lock up when I have to go anywhere. That's a key part of the control element to the research."

"Alright, now I think the best thing we can do to find out who is sneaking into your lab is to stake it out tonight. My Uncle Roy…." Matt started.

"No!" Max interrupted, "No one can be in the lab when I'm not here and I can't stay up all night. I'd go to sleep and that would compromise my study. I'm sorry Houston, but I can't let you stay in the lab overnight."

Matt rubbed his neck, ok, the problem was simple. Someone was sneaking in and giving shots or something to these lab animals when Max wasn't around. It seemed clear that Max practically lived at that lab so someone was doing this at night. The solution to finding out who it was, was catching them in the act, but according to Max, staking out the lab wasn't an option. So how was Matt going to catch this person? "What about the floor of the hospital, my uncle and I can pose as relatives of a patient."

Max answered, "Hospital visiting hours end at 8pm and they are very serious about it. No one comes in or out of this hospital without an ID badge to scan and there are only two entrances that would take you to the elevator to get you up to this floor."

Matt was frustrated but at least with two entrances and two sets of eyes on those, maybe they could at least catch someone around during off hours. "Ok, look Max, Uncle Roy and I will figure something out to catch whoever it is that is sneaking in any way to mess up your experiments. Make sure you keep all this to yourself. I'm just an old college buddy stopping by to reminisce old times if anyone asks."

"I completely understand, my assistants just came back. We..should..do..lunch..soon" Max said, sounding almost like he was in a high school play.

Matt smiled and said, "Good job Max, now just hang up and we'll talk later."

C.J. walked around the corner just as Matt put the phone down. "Was that Max?"

Matt looked at her up and down and put his arms around her waist, "Yes it was. I'm thinking of taking a direct route on this case and just catch whoever it is that is sneaking into his lab and messing with his lab animals."

C.J. looked up at him, "A stake out? That sounds pretty simple, let me get my purse."

Matt held on to her though when she tried to back up, "I talked to Uncle Roy and he can help me with this. I'd rather you head back to the beach house and get a little rest."

C.J. looked confused, "Why?" Then she caught that look of concern he was trying to hide in his eyes, "Matt I'm fine. I've just been a little more tired than normal the last few days…"

"Weeks" he interrupted, "and you've lost weight…not a lot, but you have definitely lost a few pounds. I have become very familiar with every inch of your body and I've noticed. You aren't eating like you usually do."

C.J. put her hands on his face, "Most women like to hear that they've lost weight. Matt really, I'm fine. So I'm not eating enough to feed an army right now, its no big deal. I'm sure this will pass. In the meantime I'm still a partner in this agency and I fully intend to work with you side by side on cases."

Matt took her hands in his and kissed each one, "Yes you are my partner, but you aren't feeling well. Uncle Roy and I can handle this stake out tonight. In fact, it would be much more helpful to us on this case if you kept working with Baby to find out more information on our research assistants and that hospital administrator. We still don't have all the details."

C.J. nodded her head, it made sense, "Ok, I'll do that while you two watch the lab, just be careful that you don't let any of the test subjects out of their cages and you don't let anyone do anything to you that make you a customer in that hospital. I make myself clear?"

Matt smiled and told her, "Well, we won't actually be in the hospital. Max won't let us in the lab overnight so we will be in our cars watching the entrances. Come on, let's go get some dinner first." Matt slipped his hand around her waist and the two headed out to a little Italian restaurant, Tuscan Sunset, just down the street from their building. They talked more about Matt's college days and how much he really hated those science classes and C.J. just laughed as he tried to remember what he learned. Her pasta was good and she forced down more than she felt comfortable eating because she knew her husband. Behind the jokes and storytelling he was watching her every move. She didn't want him to worry. She hadn't told him about all the mysterious pain she had been having, but figured Carol could help her with that soon enough. Carol had been out of the office today, but C.J. planned to give her a call at home later that night. Now with Matt out on a stake out she could call and not have to worry about him overhearing anything.

They finished dinner and got back to his building where they parted ways, not before a couple of minutes of lip action at the entrance door to the building by the elevator. Uncle Roy arrived just a couple of minutes after they started and just waited. He cleared his throat and both of them turned and looked to see this, 'I so saw this coming, I told you so' grin on his face and asked Matt if he could tear himself away for a little work for a minute. Matt nodded and left with his uncle. C.J. just laughed when she got in the elevator. She wasn't prepared though for what she found when she got up there.


	8. Chapter 8

The stakeout proved remarkably uneventful. Matt drank he didn't know how many cups of coffee and between the lack of action and his uncle talking to him over walkie talkie every twenty minutes, this was just torture. Everytime that stupid radio beeped he looked up for a second and then asked, "What now Uncle Roy?" The answer to that question alternated between how right he was about him and C.J. and how much he was missing Lucy and the extremely romantic week he planned with her. Matt was glad his uncle had reconnected with someone, but really, he didn't need to know the details. He promised to send them to Tahiti, Hawaii, wherever if his uncle would just pay attention to the door and make sure that none of the people in the pictures he gave him went in or out. By 5am when Max arrived, they had learned nothing. Both, exhausted, parted ways and went home to bed.

C.J. had a much more eventful night. She got up to the penthouse and found that someone had ransacked it and were still there. She barely caught a glimpse of Chris' overturned desk when an object came out of nowhere straight at her face. She ducked but just barely missed being hit in the face with the desk lamp. She kept her hands up protecting her face as she backed toward Chris' desk and then ran to her office, slamming the door behind her.

Her desk and file cabinets were ransacked. She could hear the door handle jiggle and then stop. She picked up the phone and called Hoyt who picked up right away.

"Hoyt, its C.J. there's an intruder in the penthouse, I…" and then the phone died. Hoyt called in to dispatch to get any patrols in the area up to that penthouse now and then ran out the door himself.

C.J. heard the line go dead and then nothing, no sounds from the rest of the penthouse. She reached into her desk and found only a letter opener to use as a weapon. She also grabbed her own desk lamp and slowly made her way back to the door that led to the lobby. She thought to herself, 'why didn't I just call down to security, Matt's gonna yell at me for that. Ok, I have bigger problems first.' Her plan was to sneak out and head down the stairwell. But, wait a minute, what if she got to the stairwell and opened the door, letting it slam shut, and then snuck back in her office and quietly closed that door. Then, whoever was in that penthouse would think she had left and she could get a good look at this intruder. He would probably head down the other set of stairs anyway thinking she was on her way to get help so there wouldn't even be that much danger besides she was sure Hoyt was on his way. Ok, that was the plan.

She snuck out and opened the door to the stairs and turned around and ran right into a man with a ski mask on who grabbed both her arms. She employed some of the self-defense moves Matt taught her and few more she had picked up when they were in the orient on their honeymoon. She nailed him between the legs and brought her elbow down on the back of his neck when he was hunched over, dropping him to the floor. Then she ran to the gym to get a jump rope to tie him up with, but by the time she got back to the lobby, he was gone. The elevator dinged and 4 LAPD officers came rushing in guns drawn.

They quickly swarmed the office and she could hear them shout, "Clear" with each room they went in. Hoyt arrived next with more officers, went right over to C.J. to ask if she was ok. He told her he tried calling Matt, but he didn't answer, she was shaking her head as he told her though. "No, look Hoyt he's out on a stake out. I don't want him rushing back here. Everything is fine now." She said as she looked around the penthouse.

"Did you get a good look at the guy? Security guard downstairs says he didn't notice anyone come in but that he was running late and the shift before him apparently left early so you were the only one to see anything." He asked.

"No, not really, he was wearing a ski mask, but I'd say he was about 6ft tall, not really muscular and not particularly agile either." C.J. answered absently rubbing her abdomen.

Hoyt noticed, "You sure you're ok? You said he never really touched you, but you look like you're nursing a punch in the gut."

C.J. caught herself and shook her head, "No, I'm fine, just a little stomach bug I think. I've had it since before this little incident."

"Well, I know this is going to be hard to answer right now, but does it look like anything was taken?" Hoyt asked surveying the mess left behind.

C.J. walked in to the couch and noticed Baby was untouched but the file with their case was missing, "I think the file we had started on the case is missing, but I think that's it. I mean it's gonna take me all night to put this place back together, but no, I think that's it. Huh, I don't guess whoever it was knew anything about Baby."

Hoyt nodded his head, "That's good, you know if I hadn't seen you guys on it so often, I would never think a computer was hiding under what looks like a normal coffee table. Ok, well, I'll have the lab boys run through here real fast, maybe whoever it was left something behind. I need to get back, I can leave a couple of guys here just to make sure you get out to your car alright before you head out." He offered with his hands on her arms.

C.J. smiled at him and thanked him, but said, "No, that's alright. I think I'm going to be up here a while doing more work on this case and creating a new file, and I have quite a mess to clean up."

Hoyt smiled and told her to take care. She started picking up papers and putting them back in folders while the officers did their job. They dusted for prints, but found nothing. C.J. thought back and remembered, the intruder was wearing gloves. She gave her full statement to one of the detectives. She picked up the lobby, finished her office when she got back to the couch. She took one last look around and felt satisfied that everything looked the way it did before they went to dinner. She looked down and caught herself rubbing her abdomen again, she had an ache. Nothing really painful or sharp, just a dull ache. She felt herself get really tired all of a sudden and looked at her watch, 3am. No wonder she was tired. She laid down on the couch and decided she would work on the case in the morning. When Matt got back to the beach house around 6 or so, she was just going to tell him that she got up early and headed in. She did want to wait until Chris got there though before she went down to shower and change. She didn't want to be that exposed right now at 3am. So she laid down and drifted off to sleep.

Matt got back to the beach house at 5:30 and noticed her car wasn't there. His brow furrowed when he went in and found the bed had not been slept in. He tossed his keys in his hand a minute and then called the penthouse where she answered, trying not to sound like he had just woke her up.

"Houston Investigations" she said trying to sound perky, but beyond exhausted.

"C.J. what are you doing up there? I thought I told you to come back here and get some rest? Did you stay up there all night?" He asked and she could hear the worry in his voice even though she couldn't see it on his face.

"I just wanted to get an early start on this case. Now listen to me Mr. Houston, you get right in bed. You were up all night and since you didn't come home _or answer your phone when I called_" she emphasized that last part, "I am assuming the stake out didn't yield any results." Part of this was bluffing on her part, and she was an expert by the way. That's one the reasons Matt didn't always invite her to his poker games, she could totally clean house. She remembered Hoyt saying he didn't answer the phone and figured he had just gotten to the beach house and had called right away.

Matt looked up at the ceiling and smiled just a little smile. He didn't really mind being chided by his wife and she was right, he needed some serious sleep. "No it didn't. Uncle Roy and I will try again tonight. You know, I sleep better after I have a little exercise and I definitely sleep better when I'm not alone" he said as he licked his lips hoping she would get the hint.

Oh she got the hint, but she didn't think she was physically able to do that right now so she tried to let him down gently, "Why do I get the feeling that if I come home you will do a lot more exercise in that bed than sleep?"

Matt smiled again, "Because you know me too well" and even though she couldn't see him, she knew he was waggling his eyebrows.

"Goodnight Mr. Houston" she said.

"Goodnight Mrs. Houston" he answered and then he crawled into bed alone and drifted off to sleep, so did she.


	9. Chapter 9

Chris woke C.J. up at 8am when she came in with more danishes. She took them over to the bar and let out a shriek and jumped when she caught C.J. sleeping out of the corner of her eye. "Oh my goodness, I didn't think anyone was here. You scared me half to death." She said with her hand on her chest.

The shriek startled C.J. out of sleep too but she composed herself quickly. "I didn't really get out of here last night" she said as she sat up and rubbed her neck. "Someone broke in and really did a number on this place. After Hoyt and the police left, I stayed and cleaned up." C.J. started to stretch and yawned.

Chris looked scared for moment and asked, "Someone broke in? Do the police have any idea who? Did the security guard see anything?"

C.J. got up and walked over to the bar to get some coffee, "No, he didn't. There was a small gap between when the last guy left and he came in. I was the only one who saw anything."

Chris' eyes got wider, "You mean you walked in on it? Did he see you? Were you hurt?" she asked out of legitimate concern.

C.J. smiled at her and said, "Yes I did, and yes he did, but no I was not hurt. He was hurt, but I was not hurt."

Chris looked relieved. "Ok, well what did Houston have to say, I bet he has an idea of who it was." At that point C.J. looked away for a second and bit her lip. Chris knew what that meant, "He doesn't know does he? C.J. you have to tell him."

C.J. explained, "I know and I will. Chris he was on a stake out last night and I took care of things here. We're partners and I can handle things just as well as he can sometimes. I had the guy down on the ground and about to tie him up when the police, that I called by the way, came in only to find he had escaped."

Chris said, "Ok, so do you know who it was or what they wanted?"

C.J. answered, "I don't know who, but I think I know what they wanted, and got, was our file on the Longman case. So now I need to put it all back together again and add to it. Wanna help?"

Chris smiled, "Sure, where do I start?"

C.J. took out one of her favorite danishes out of the bag and took her over to Baby. "Ok, we need the biographical information on these individuals, have Baby print it all out. Then pull everything you can on L.A. Pharmaceutical Co. and Hippocrat Pharmaceutical Labs and print that out, especially info on a failed drug test 3 years ago by L.A. Pharmaceutical. I'm going downstairs to get a shower and change. When I get back we can work on finding a motive for someone to want to keep this blood clotting drug from working." She sat down long enough to get Baby all set up and left the info with Chris while she headed downstairs.

She went into the closet that they had shared before they ever became a couple and only found a couple of things. There was a nice evening gown…no, that wasn't going to do today…no jeans….huh, there has to be something…oh wait, a pair of sweats and t-shirt for working out in. Well that would have to work for now. She grabbed some of the more intimate items out of her drawer and put it all together, folded neatly on a little stand by the shower door. She draped the towel over the door to fill in that gap so no one could see anything if anyone happened to accidently walk down there and got in.

The water felt good for all of about 2 minutes, then that sharp pain came back. She grabbed the wall and her abdomen. She started feeling dizzy and like she was going to faint and vomit at the same time. It was getting hot, really hot in that shower and she felt paralyzed hunched over. She slowly sat herself down and leaned up against the wall with her back flat against it as she reeled in pain. It almost felt like a heart attack. During the night these little tinges had come and gone and a couple had woken her up for a minute but this, this was much worse. She seemed to notice it coming in waves and it seemed like each wave was less intense than the last. Maybe she should just ride this out sort of speak. After almost an hour it seemed to subside again, but the nausea remained.

She slowly got up and turned the shower off. She dried off and put on her bra and panties when it hit her. She was going to be sick. She ran over to the other part of the bathroom and lost the danish and the pasta from the night before. It wasn't like she hadn't vomited before, but this came with a pain she had never experienced before. She sat back down on the floor and closed her eyes for a second. She just needed a minute before she tried to get up. Then she was calling Carol, something was definitely wrong with her. She didn't ever want to relive what she had just gone through for the last hour. She slowly picked herself back up and walked over to the rest of her clothes.

Upstairs Chris was thoroughly enjoying working with Baby. She really hadn't done much with Baby since she worked there, so this was a nice refreshing change of pace for her. She heard the elevator and turned to see Murray come in with about 50 pages worth of documents.

"Chris, what you doing? Where's Houston? Where's C.J.? Why are you working on Baby?" he asked.

Chris looked up and smiled, "I'm just helping C.J. out for a minute. She's busy so I'm printing some stuff out for her."

Murray seemed to digest that and looked around as Chris got back to work, "So where is she? I have a couple of things here I'd like her to look over first before I have a board meeting."

Chris didn't look back up at him but kept typing and said, "Downstairs…"

He left and didn't hear Chris say, "she's showering and changing and will be back up here in a minute."

He got to the bottom step and caught C.J. in only her underwear slowly trying to get dressed. He did a quick about face while his head started to turn 3 shades of red, starting from him cheeks and ended with the bald spot on top. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I..I…I didn't know…I'll be upstairs…"he stammered out.

"Its ok" he heard C.J. say. She had already put on the shirt and the sweats by the time he turned back around. "I'm decent now. Are those papers you need me to look over?" she asked, hoping to make him feel a little less uncomfortable.

He slowly turned back around and swallowed hard, "Ah, yes, yes these are some legal papers I was hoping you could look over before my board meeting in a couple of hours." He noticed she looked ill all of a sudden and he definitely noticed she had lost a lot of weight, like she was seriously ill or something.

"Are you ok, you don't look so good….I mean you look good…not that I looked…I just mean…"he kept stuttering but she knew he meant well.

C.J. walked over to him, "I have a stomach bug I think, that's all, I'll be fine and I can have these gone over in an hour or so" she said as she tried to take them from him.

Murray held on to them though, "no, its ok really, we have a whole legal team just one floor down. Are you sure you're ok? C.J. I'm sorry, but you look like you've lost a lot of weight, and that's saying something for someone who didn't need to lose any to begin with."

She saw the concern on his face and wanted to reassure him too. "I have been feeling kind of under the weather, but I'm calling a doctor friend of mine today to schedule an appointment. I'm sure its nothing, but thanks for asking."

"Just take care of yourself" he said as he went back up stairs. C.J. dried off her hair again and then went over to the phone to call Carol. After she gave her name the receptionist said Carol would see her at 1pm. She thought that was odd, but maybe Carol had called to set up lunch or something and Chris just hadn't given her the message yet. She went back up stairs and Chris had everything waiting. She looked at C.J. and said, "You're never going to believe this…"


	10. Chapter 10

C.J. walked over and sat down, "What…What did you find?"

Chris threw her hair back, "Well, I got all the biographical stuff and then stuff on that L.A. Pharmaceutical Company and it looks like when this Peterman guy puts money in his bank account, money comes out of L.A.'s bank account."

C.J. nodded, "So you think L.A. Pharmaceutical is paying the head of Woodland Memorial Hospital for some kind of service, information or something. Well, of course I doubt its a coincidence, but to prove anything we would need some kind of direct paper trail. Just because money leaves one account and the exact same amount shows up in another one doesn't prove anything. Its circumstantial." C.J. could see Chris look disappointed.

"However, you finding this is very good because now we know where to look and what to look for. You could have made a significant discovery here, Chris" with that from C.J. Chris smiled again.

"Ok, well, here is what's really scary about this whole thing. All the research assistants that worked on that study 3 years ago…the bad one with people dying….all but two of them died within two years after the project made the papers." Chris explained and she knew this was big.

C.J.'s eyes got bigger too, "If you are right Chris, this puts our case in a whole new league now. How did they die? Did it have anything to do with the drug trial?"

Chris shook her head as she started clicking buttons and bringing up photos along with newspaper obituaries along side the photo, "They all have different causes of death, this one is a suicide, this one is a car accident, this one is a drug overdose, and this last one, murdered with a potassium injection. Police said the potassium made it look like an average heart attack and that they almost ruled it a natural cause of death. Now its officially listed as a cold case."

C.J. hated that term, Cold Case. That means whoever killed someone had gotten away with it. All these seemingly victims were young women. These were young women, just starting out on their own, honestly trying to make positive changes to the world as they knew it. She shook her head, this just made her sick to think about. These four lives ripped away like that. Each cause of death could easily be faked to cover up a homicide. C.J. knew a couple of these from personal experience. A few years ago that's how a man named Jonathan Renfield tried to kill her and make it look like a car accident. When that didn't work his hit men tried again to fake a drug overdose. Then there was that whole incident in college with that boyfriend…she stopped herself there.

C.J. stood up slowly, "This isn't just a case of industrial espionage anymore, it's a murder investigation."

Chris said, "Ok, but what do we do now?"

Suddenly C.J. felt faint and almost fell back on the couch. Chris' eyes widened and she asked, "Oh C.J. you don't look good, I'll call an ambulance."

C.J. shook her head and said, "No, there's no need for that. I am supposed to meet Carol later this afternoon. She and I were sorority sisters remember and she is a doctor. She wants to meet at 1 but I think maybe I should pop in earlier and ask if she'll take me on as a patient to find out whatever bug it is I have right now. Would you mind calling a car service for me? I don't think I should drive."

"Do you want me to take you?" Chris offered.

"No, a car service will be fine. I need you here holding down the fort. That research you did for me is really impressive. If you want to keep working on it that would be great. Just keep checking with security though, make it clear to them what happened last night and speculate on how you think Houston's going to react when he finds out no one was at their post when an intruder broke in and his wife had to subdue him."

Chris smiled, "Do you really want me to put it like that, they might just resign out of fear."

C.J. smiled back but then got serious, "Chris what we do is dangerous, even the research aspect of it can be if someone doesn't like what we find. I don't want you risking anything ok? And if that means scaring the life out of the guards downstairs so they watch this place a little more carefully with you here, I'm fine with that. Barney, the head security guard, will probably be on these guys anyway when he finds out."

Chris went to get the car service and C.J. gingerly made her way back to her office to gather her purse. She closed her eyes for a second, its just been an incredibly long day that started yesterday morning. That's all this is, she told herself. No real sleep and a stomach virus of some kind. She'll get over it, she just needed some serious shuteye for a while. She walked slowly out and ended up in Carol's office about 20 minutes later.

The receptionist looked annoyed at C.J. when she gave her her name. "Its 11am, she doesn't have you scheduled until 1pm. You know that right?" the not so friendly older lady asked.

C.J. looked back confused, "Appointment? I thought we were meeting for lunch? I didn't know I had an official appointment with Carol" she asked.

Carol was just walking up with another patient to the check-out area of the office and was handing her a prescription when she saw C.J.

She walked through the door and gave C.J. a hug and then looked her up and down with a look of quiet concern on her face, "C.J., what brings you down here?"

Her receptionist answered, "She has an appointment at 1 Dr. LaMaster."

"An appointment, are you ok?" Carol asked.

C.J. smiled, "Well, yes, sort of, I didn't know I had an appointment, but I am glad I do now. I have some sort of stomach bug that's been really bothering me lately."

The receptionist spoke up, "I haven't had time to process any information yet Dr., no medical history, no insurance nothing. I wasn't expecting her until 1." She sounded annoyed.

Carol looked around at the empty waiting area, "I think I can take her now. I can get the medical history during the exam and I don't think insurance is going to be a problem. She's one of the most insured people I know." She said and they both chuckled as they walked back.

Carol left C.J. in an exam room to change, which she did quickly and Carol returned with a chart. "I sent in the appropriate requests via fax and I think you're going to make my fax machine run out of ink."

They both smiled, but then Carol got serious. "What's wrong, what kind of bug are we talking about?"

C.J. took a deep breath and started, "A stomach bug I think. I haven't had much of an appetite lately and I've been getting some pretty sharp pains in my abdomen. One time the pain started there and then moved to my shoulder."

Carol walked over and told C.J. to lay back. "Well, I kind of guessed it was something related to your digestive system. Tell me, how much do you think you weigh?"

C.J. thought back to the scale a few days ago, "125, at least that's what it was a couple of days ago."

Carol began pushing on her stomach, "According to your bathroom scale?" C.J. nodded. "Well your bathroom scale is way off, you weighed in here at 112 and that's too low for me. I noticed when I saw you, you looked like you had lost weight." At about that point Carol pushed on something that had C.J. wince and cry out. "That hurt?"

C.J. caught her breath and replied, "What do you think?"

Carol smiled, "Ok, well that's about where your liver is. So this stomach bug, does it make you eat less?"

"Yes, I just don't have much of a desire to eat like I used to…it seems more like a requirement than a recreation now." C.J. tried to explain.

"Ok, what about nausea?" C.J. nodded, "Vomiting?"

C.J. nodded again, "Actually just this morning for the first time with the pains."

Carol seemed to digest that and looked back at her chart. "Ok, here's what we're going to do. We're going to draw some blood and do a full work up. I want to check your insulin, iron levels, thyroid everything. Then we are scheduling an ultrasound. I usually use Meadow Woods Hospital because of the financial position of most of my patients, but I can get you in Woodland Memorial and do the test in about a week and I don't really want to wait on this any longer than we have to. I'll give you some pain meds to take if you have another attack and some anti-nausea meds so you can eat. Stick to a vegetarian diet for a while alright?" she said as she kept writing. "One last thing, I know you and Houston just got married, but you still have an IUD in right? You aren't pregnant?"

"Yes I still have that so no, I'm not pregnant. In fact my cycle ended last week and everything was fine." C.J. was reminded of the case though when Carol mentioned Woodland Memorial and spoke up, "Carol, do you practice much out of Woodland Memorial?"

She looked up, "Not if I can help it. They care a lot more about money and insurance than they do about patients and the people I treat don't appear very welcome."

"Do you know much about the Head of the Hospital, Daniel Peterman?" C.J. inquired thinking an insider perspective would be good here.

Carol rolled her eyes, "Unfortunately yes I do know him. That man is all about making money. He could care less about people. You know, I almost called you once. I wanted to know how feasible it was for a patient of mine to actually sue that hospital when they refused to treat her. I put in a surgical order and reserved a room there, only because they were the only ones with the equipment I needed and they just sent her from one department to another before she could check in and by the time I found out anything, my hour in the O.R. was over." Carol shook her head, clearly still angry.

C.J. could see how it affected her, how seriously she took her own work and wanted to offer something. "I could look everything over. Hospitals are legally bound to treat patients even if they don't think they will get paid. It is the law."

Carol nodded and then asked, "Why do you want to know about Peterman?"

C.J. knew she could share the case with Carol, "Well, we have a case involving competitive drug companies that have had similar problems with drug trials, at about the same point in the trial and both were administered out of that hospital. I'm just trying to figure out if the head of the hospital could stand to gain anything from these trials not succeeding."

Carol almost laughed, "Are you kidding? Of course he could, and especially Peterman. Besides the fact that healthier people don't tend to visit hospitals that often, these pharmaceutical companies pay a lot of rent to hospitals to use their facilities. On top of that sometimes gifts get exchanged if you know what I mean between the two, just to insure additional privacy."

C.J. blinked, "You mean like protection style money?"

Carol nodded her head, "You'd be amazed how much of a racket the medical world can be."

A nurse came in took C.J.'s blood in 8 different vials and after that was all over they walked back to the door. C.J. took her prescriptions and advice to take it easy from Carol and headed back to the office before heading back to the beach house.


	11. Chapter 11

After getting the prescriptions filled after her lunch, C.J. stopped by the office and picked up the very well organized folder Chris put together for her. Given that it took her so long to get back up there, now 5pm, she told Chris to go out and have a nice dinner before going home. Barney, Head of Security for Houston Inc. who just came up in the elevator looked awfully nervous.

"I am so sorry Ms. Parsons, I mean Parsons-Houston. I can assure you there will never be a breach in my security team again. Please let me explain." Barney started, clearly rattled.

C.J. felt a little bad for him. She didn't want to scare him, just keep the other guys on their toes, "Barney, its ok. No harm was done outside of one file going missing. I'm ok and I'm sure Houston will understand that what happened was a one time lapse in judgment by some of our security men, not you personally and that it will never happen again." Barney seemed to calm down some, but she wanted to go further, "You have been a loyal employee for years now and Houston always speaks highly of you, so just maybe set a few things straight with the guys under you and go home and don't worry about this anymore ok?" she said as she patted his shoulder and led him to the elevator. She waved as the door shut then turned back to Chris.

"Now you go home, that's where I'm headed and thanks for this. I'm not sure I ever put anything together for Matt that looked this organized" she said with a chuckle.

Chris smiled but still looked concerned, "You sure you're ok? What did the doctor say, if you don't mind my asking?" C.J. didn't mind, her and Chris had been friends for years now.

"Well there's nothing to tell yet, she took some blood and is running some tests, she gave me some medication so I can eat better and scheduled some more tests for next week. In the meantime, she wants me to take it easy, so I may lay low a few days at the beach house. I think we have a lot of information here and I know Matt wants to concentrate to catching whoever it is that is doing the actual tampering. He's taking this potential drug and its implication personally and wants to eliminate any problems for Max as soon as possible. I'm the one looking for motive, and I can lay in bed or around the house and try to sort this out. Now that I know how well you work with Baby, I may just call in and have you look a few things up for me, if you don't mind."

Chris smiled, "Oh no, I don't mind. It was kind of fun actually. A lot better than answering phone calls all day and moving papers from one desk to another."

"Good, lets head out together. I'm hungry, I think I'll hit that deli again. Carol wants me on a vegetarian diet and they have a couple of wraps there that are good. Care to join me?" C.J. offered.

Chris accepted and they walked down the street. They both ordered wraps and C.J. took her anti-nausea pill and they both scarfed down their food, C.J. ordered hers with extra cheese and drinks. C.J. opted not to pick one up for Matt as he only ate at this deli because he knew C.J. liked it and she knew that. She hit a fish place on the way to the beach house and picked him something up. She pulled out the aluminum pan with fried fish and chips and put it in the oven which she turned on low just to keep it warm and quietly went upstairs.

She found Matt sleeping peacefully and tiptoed over to the bathroom again and pulled the scale out just to check, it still read 125.

She walked out and started past Matt, tiptoeing again when she heard, "And where do you think you're going?"

She looked back at him, laying there with only one eye open, but set on her. She climbed on the bed and laid down beside him. His hand slipping right around her waist and he rolled to face her. "Just going downstairs to check on your dinner. I have it in the oven keeping warm." He kissed her, another slow intense, heart melting kiss.

When he released his hold on her mouth all he said was, "I am definitely hungry, but its not for food." He kissed her again, his hand moving from her waist to down, behind her, pushing her to him and moving his hand to the waistband of her sweatpants. He stopped for a second, furrowed his brow and then sat up so he could see her more clearly. "Did you just workout? This isn't your typical business attire?"

C.J. remembered she changed into them after being in such pain in the office after staying up there cleaning up when it was broken into, but she didn't want to talk about that right at that moment. She had other things in mind. "Are you saying I would look better without them on?" she asked in the sexiest voice she had.

Matt suddenly forgot why he was asking about the workout clothes and responded with another kiss, much more intense and the rhythm a little faster this time as he helped her take her shirt off. She rubbed his chest and he lavished a lot of attention on hers, especially once he got her bra off. She moaned, he loved that, it just fueled his desire more and more. Their bodies moved in a unique rhythm all their own as he started to try to remove her sweatpants. But then he heard her moan louder, differently and it caused him to stop. It didn't sound like pleasure and it scared him. He moved his hand up to her face where she seemed to be grimacing in pain.

"Honey, what is it? What's the matter?" he asked frantically looking over her body which he just noticed looked awfully thin. She was also curling up in a ball with her arms around her abdomen. "C.J. talk to me…" he said softly, his heart racing. He had only seen her in this much pain a couple of times before, for example, when she had been shot. His mind took him to those moments of terror in that split second she couldn't seem to respond to him.

She opened her eyes and saw Matt breathing heavy and looking scared, but the sharp pain was back. She closed her eyes for a second and, felt him move on the bed. She could hear him pick up the phone and start pushing buttons, "Matt, its ok, I'm fine."

He looked at her, his heart thudding in his chest steadily going into panic mode, but trying to sound calm for her, "No, no you're not and I'm calling an ambulance. We'll get you to the hospital and you will be fine then."

C.J. tried to sit up and Matt sat on the bed and told her to lay still, "No, Matt really, I have some pain pills. They're downstairs in the kitchen in a bag. I just need one of those please. I don't need an ambulance, I saw Carol today, just please get me that pill…it hurts." She closed her eyes again.

Matt was torn so he put the phone down and ran downstairs and grabbed the bottle and a bottle of water and ran it up to his wife. He helped her sit up and take the pill. She asked him to hold her for a minute while she waited for the pill to kick in. He gently took her in his arms and brushed her hair off her face with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. Still thinking he should just carry her out of there, put her in his car and race her to the nearest hospital. He decided that if in another 2 minutes, if she didn't feel better he was doing exactly that no matter what she said.

Her breathing slowed down and she got that feeling of exhaustion again. Matt could feel her relax in his embrace and closed his eyes for a second, so thankful the pain seemed to be dying down. He readjusted himself on the bed and looked into her eyes. His hands lightly on her face brushing back her hair and just making sure she wasn't feverish, he asked her, "So what was that? Honey what happened just now?"

C.J. was so tired, so much had happened in the last 24 hours and she needed to tell him, but still, she was just so tired. The look on his face told her, he needed to know about this first though. So she told him about how she had begun having a few pains that had gradually become worse and worse. She told him about her meeting with Carol, which she thought was only for lunch, but ended up as a real doctor visit.

Matt nodded his head, realizing he had been right and decided to tell her, "I made that appointment for you yesterday. I knew something was wrong, but honey I didn't know it was something like this. You have to tell me things like this, ok? I'm your husband now and you are the most important thing in my life. Nothing is more important than you, I don't care if I'm signing the biggest business deal or wrapping up a huge case. Or if I'm sleeping for a stake out that night, if something is happening to you, I want to know about it right then, you hear me?"

C.J. nodded but wanted to explain, "Matt, these pains…they came out of nowhere…I didn't know if I just pulled something that would nag for a while or just a one time twinge…I went to see Carol because you were right, I knew today when I had another one and threw up that it was more serious than I thought."

Matt looked at her up and down again, "You threw up….that's why you're wearing sweats….it happened at the office. Why didn't you come home?"

C.J. answered, "I went right over to Carol and she saw me early. She took some blood" C.J. showed him her arm with the band aid, "gave me some pain medication, told me I was too thin and scheduled an ultrasound for next week. Then I came home."

Matt frowned, "Next week, she thinks we're waiting until next week to have this test done." He sat up, but C.J. grabbed his arm and asked him to lay with her for a few more minutes, the pain wasn't completely gone. He moved right back in bed beside her and held her. He was so frustrated because he didn't really know how to help her. This pain was an enemy he didn't know how to fight or protect her from.


	12. Chapter 12

C.J. started to drift off, but tried hard to stay awake. Matt still seemed upset and wasn't taking his eyes off her. His arms around her made her feel better in a way she couldn't describe, but the pain pills Carol prescribed were definitely taking effect and the two combined almost knocked her out. She knew there was more to the day than Matt knew and she needed to tell him. She did not plan on keeping any secrets from him, not now that they were married.

She tried to move, but his arms remained firmly in place around her, her head on his chest, his hand moving up and down her shoulder and one on her back, and his breathing just a little ragged. "Matt, there's more, there's more I need to tell you. Today was a long day, it wasn't just the pain…wow these pain pills are strong….look, Matt, the penthouse…"C.J. tried to get all this out, but it was no use. She was so sleepy.

Matt softly responded, "C.J. just try to sleep now, let those pain pills do their job. We can talk about anything you want tomorrow. Right now you need to rest. I'm not leaving all night. We can stake out the hospital tomorrow night. No one knows Max is on to anything. Just sleep, I'll be up all night anyway going over what information we have. I saw the folder downstairs, now just sleep. I'm not leaving you. I love you."

He looked down and brushed the hair out of her face, seeing her asleep, he kissed her forehead. He then maneuvered his way out of the bed, careful to make sure she remained sleeping. It was only 8pm so he took out C.J.'s address book from her nightstand and found Carol's home phone number to ask her about what was going on.

He pulled out the dinner she bought him from the oven, but wasn't really hungry. Seeing her in that much pain took away any appetite he had before. He ran his hand through his hair and went over and made that phone call.

Carol answered right away, "Hello?"

Matt tried to reign himself in but found that he was asking question on top of question, "Carol, its Matt Houston. C.J. just had some kind of attack, I don't know exactly what happened, she was fine one minute and then she was reeling in some kind of intense pain, she looks like she's lost 50lbs and she was white as a sheet. What is going on? What did you find out today? Is this serious? I've only seen her like this a couple of times, when she's been shot. Carol, I think I should just take her to the hospital myself. Which one do you practice out of? I can have her there in 10 minutes, I…"

Carol interrupted, "Houston, Houston, calm down…"she understood his concern and to be honest, she was a little more than concerned herself. She had put a rush in on the blood work and found that most of the levels for what she was checking for were coming back normal. That didn't tell her anything. Not all of it was in though, some needed a few days for any culture to develop, and that meant a waiting game. Opening her up just to see if they could see what was wrong, was never a good idea. She knew this was not going to be easy, but she needed to convince Matt to just hold on a few days and wait. "I understand your concern. She had some kind of attack, right? Where did the pain seem to be coming from?"

Matt looked back upstairs and thought back, "Her gut, right in the middle of her gut, she was curling up in a ball reeling. She was breathing hard and couldn't talk to me, at least not as it started. Listen, I can carry her to the car or call an ambulance, you can choose, but she is not going to be in pain like that again." he said with a determination Carol had only seen once before, when Jonathan Renfield had tried to kill C.J. years earlier.

She knew she needed to talk him through this. A hospital stay was not what C.J. needed. So she tried to explain and calm down Matt at the same time. "Houston, I know you want to rush her somewhere and fight this for her, but you can't. Now listen to me, a hospital stay will only jeopardize her well being, not help." Matt closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he didn't like what she was saying, but she was the doctor here, not him. It still went against every fiber in his being to just sit and listen.

She continued, "We can't treat her properly until we get the results from the blood work back and that takes time. Its not an issue of telling them to process it faster, its an issue of giving cultures time to develop if they are there. If we admit her to the hospital, she will be exposed to every germ and disease being treated there, and if there is an issue with her immune system, or she has to have surgery, we risk infection and that could be life threatening. I know this is going to be hard for you, but I prescribed her some pain medication and anti nausea medication so she can eat and regain some of that weight back before surgery should it become necessary. That will make her stronger and better able to endure it."

Matt took a deep breath, "So there is nothing that can be done right now?" he asked. Man this was killing him inside, to know that she was hurting and no one could do anything. Almost like the Peg Allison case when she was shot and he tried to send every ounce of energy into her he could from himself, willing her to live and survive that damn gunshot wound.

Carol could tell she was getting through, but knew she needed to go further. "I can stop by tonight, that won't be a problem. Jared and I just got back from dinner and we were thinking of driving out to the beach for a little walk anyway. I'd like to stop by anyway just to check on her." She wasn't just offering this to make Matt feel better, two attacks in one day was not a good sign.

Matt nodded his head and told her, "I'd appreciate that. I'm going to be up all night anyway. I planned a stake out for tonight, but I'm not leaving her alone. I can pick it up again tomorrow night, so I should stay up anyway. So any time you can get here, I won't be asleep, just knock." He was starting to calm down and was ready to get off the phone. He wanted to get back upstairs with C.J. to check on her again and he needed to call Uncle Roy to tell him he was taking the night off. He didn't plan on giving his uncle all the details, but he knew Roy would understand if C.J. was ill and needed Matt there to take care of her.

They said goodbye, Carol saying she would be arriving by 10 and Matt made that call to his uncle. Uncle Roy offered to stake out the driveway to the hospital and check to see who came and went from there and Matt thought it would be more difficult to get a positive ID on a person, but it was a fairly good compromise. Roy could hear the fear in his nephew's voice and decided to not mention Lucy or anything like that, in fact the sound of Matt's voice actually had him quite concerned. All he said was, "Just take care of her boy, we'll touch base in the morning. I'll call you if I see anything."

"Thanks Uncle Roy, I plan to stay up all night so don't hesitate and don't confront anyone. Remember its just surveillance for tonight."

Matt hung up the phone after getting the reassurance from his uncle and made his way back upstairs. C.J. seemed to be sleeping peacefully. He sat on the bed next to her for a second and saw she had curled up to Matt's pillow and had kicked some of the blankets off her. He gently took them and covered her back up. He felt her head one time just to make sure she wasn't running a fever and brushed a soft kiss on her forehead before turning off the light and heading back downstairs.


	13. Chapter 13

He picked up the folder under the bag with her prescriptions in it. He blinked a couple of times at this incredibly well organized folder. 'C.J. put this together? What got her so organized all of a sudden' he thought with a little smile. C.J. was organized, especially when it came to turning evidence over to Hoyt or going to trial, but this was just weird for her.

Not only was the folder organized but appeared color coordinated by suspect, drug company and documents, the newspaper articles under a black tab and financial reports under a red one. This didn't look like the standard file C.J. would put together. No, this looked more like something Chris would put together. She was his hyper organized head of administrative assistants. He teased her often enough about maybe getting checked out for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and that he had her well covered on insurance. She always would smile and laugh and say she was just making up for others. Clearly meaning him, which made him just chuckle back.

He knew Chris long enough to tease her about it, but her last boyfriend hadn't. He came to the office and decided to pick her up a few months ago for lunch and made some wisecrack about how she was taking paperwork too seriously when it wasn't like she was all that important. Said something like, 'you really think he cares how you file this stupid stuff. He probably never even looks at it, its about as vital to his company as you are, now let's go, that restaurant I like fills up fast and I don't want you making me late getting back to work again." He wanted her to just drop everything to go with him and Matt heard his little comment from inside the penthouse.

He stepped out to the lobby, sized this idiot up and down and then looked at Chris and said, "Chris I hate to ask, but do you mind sticking around here for lunch today. I need your help on something." He looked directly at the boyfriend who didn't look happy and said, "its vital." He stared the guy down until he got in the elevator, thinking he wished the guy would just say something, anything, or better yet try something. Then Matt could lay him out good. He didn't like seeing any of his friends get hurt and Chris was a friend. He thought maybe he hadn't made that clear enough and wanted her to know she could talk to him, so he took her to lunch that day. Sure enough Chris spilled that this guy had gotten more and more possessive and simply mean when he talked to her, but she didn't know what to do about it. She wanted to talk to C.J. but was a little concerned about that because C.J. had told her so many times that if a guy ever started acting that way, that she had better drop him or C.J. would. "And I think she means literally, like she would hurt him." Chris told him.

Matt chuckled for a second when he thought back and remembered telling Chris, not to worry about letting the creep down easy, Matt would take care of it. And Matt did that night, Chris never heard from him again and never asked how Matt explained things. Matt never told her he pinned the guy to his car when he made a very rude comment about Chris. He said Matt could have her when he was done with her. Matt told him with his hand on the guy's throat that if he ever saw him around Chris again, he would more than regret it.

Matt sat down with the file and a cup of coffee. All the info on the 4 suspects was there. Dawes, assistants, Taylor and Wilkins and then Peterman. It appeared C.J. added some comments in pencil on Peterman about drug companies paying rent to hospitals and _money for privacy/protection_, huh, what did that mean exactly? He thought she was speculating on how Peterman earned that extra $125,000 he didn't report the source of last year.

He found a new tab labeled, _Deaths_ and that got him curious. His eyes widened when he read that there were 6 research assistants on that failed drug trial 3 years ago and that four had died, one listed as a murder by potassium poisoning. That must have been the case Hoyt was talking about. Clearly C.J. or Chris or whoever put this file together thought the deaths were homicides, not what they appeared to be by police, except that last one a year ago. He rubbed his brow. This case just got a lot more dangerous.

Matt had just gotten back downstairs after checking on C.J. again when he heard the knock on the door. 'Wow' he thought to himself, 'Carol got over here fast.' He opened the door expecting to see the blond bombshell doctor and her new beau, but no, Hoyt was staring back at him.

"What brings you over?" Matt asked.

"You gonna let me in?" Hoyt asked, slightly irritated.

Matt stepped aside and the detective came in, clearly tired but apparently needing something, "Look, I just dropped by to talk to C.J. about the break in last night. One of my patrol officers may have found something and I wanted to see if she remembered anything else."

Matt looked puzzled, "Break in, what are you talking about Hoyt?"

Hoyt looked back and said, "The penthouse..."then he caught on, C.J. hadn't told him yet. Oh boy...where were those antacids again? He took a deep breath and continued to a clearly concerned Matt, "Last night when she got back up to the penthouse after dinner she found the penthouse ransacked. We processed everything and one of my patrol officers says the newspaper stand vendor across the street remembered hearing something just before seeing you two walking back. He heard a car alarm. I'm thinking that's how the perpetrator got your security guy away from the building and long enough for him to get in."

"Just before..." Matt said as he processed this, "so that means, she walked in on someone in my office, tearing it up" he closed his eyes and put his hands on his hips. Scenarios running through his mind as to what could have happened.

Hoyt noticed and wanted to try to reassure him, but still knowing he wasn't going to be happy. Hoyt was thankful however, that he was the messenger just relaying the news, not the security guards he knew Matt was going to tear into later. "Yes, she did walk in on whoever it was and yes, he tried to hurt her, but she hurt him. She said she blocked a desk lamp that came swinging at her and then ran to her office where she called me. I got patrols over as soon as the phone died and she took what she had in her office to use as weapons. She tried to trick the guy into thinking she escaped out the stairwell, and then was going to sneak back into the office to get a good look at him..."

Matt clearly tensed up and closed his eyes again, but Hoyt continued, "but he came from behind. She hit him with a couple of self defense moves and ran down to the gym to tie him up, but when she got back to the lobby he was gone and my officers were already on scene. She swore he never really touched her and she took care of business sort of speak."

Matt emotions were all running around in his head, he was angry he didn't go up with her after hours to the penthouse just to make sure everything was ok, he was angry that C.J. didn't just call security, who were right there to come help her, he was angry she tried to trick this guy and not just flee like she should have, and he was proud and relieved that she took care of herself and practically apprehended the guy herself.

He knew he had to make peace with this aspect of their lives. One of the reasons he decided to really let loose and embrace all they could be was because she was the one woman he ever really trusted to take care of herself. Their love for each other was fated he truly believed. He loved her more than any other woman he had ever met in his life and it was more than just love. It was like she was an intregal part of him and he could never lose her. Despite the fact that he knew he would never get used to her being in danger, he had to trust her. But this, I mean she took a clear risk and that was not part of the plan. No, he had to make it clear to her when she felt better that she did not take those kinds of risks. He didn't care how many self defense moves she had in her arsenal, the first option was to get out of harms way, not try to catch a perpetrator.

Matt offered Hoyt a cup of coffee after he calmed down for a minute and the two went over and sat down on the sofa where Matt had his case file, each with a cup. "So what do you have?" Hoyt asked after he took a sip.

Matt handed him the file, "Check it out yourself, I think that cold case you brought up just found its way into my investigation. Its under the tab _Deaths_."

Hoyt flipped through, "Wow, you P.I.'s are pretty organized. I wish I had just one detective that could put a case file together like this."

Matt chuckled, "I have a suspicion that this was Chris' doing, but I can't ask her or C.J. til tomorrow."

Hoyt looked around, "Where is C.J.? That's her car outside isn't it?"

Matt answered, "She's upstairs" he looked down for a second, "she's been ill and saw a doctor today, but she still had some kind of attack tonight. She took a pain pill the doctor gave her and went right to sleep. I've never seen anything like it. I wanted to race her to the hospital but her doctor says we need to wait until all of the test results come in that they ran today. Still..." he said looking back up the stairs, running his hand on his coffee mug.

Hoyt nodded, "You know Anne had to have her appendix removed about 5 years ago. Never seen her in so much pain, well, since having our daughter anyway...I almost called in a police escort to get her to the hospital." He smiled, "She yelled at me the whole way, telling me I was going to cause an accident and how was it going to look on tv if a police detective gets chased by helicopter officers going 100 mph on the highway. Now her in labor, that was a different story...she was practically pushing my leg down on the gas pedal telling me the car wasn't going fast enough and was this how I treated all emergencies." Both men chuckled for a second, then Hoyt tried to reassure him, "I'm sure she'll be just fine and this doctor must be good, if you trust them."

Matt nodded, "Yeah I do, she and C.J. were sorority sisters in college. A few years ago a man named Jonathan Renfield tried to kill C.J. after killing two of her other sisters. Carol and another lawyer, Maureen stayed under our protection until we caught up with him. I could see how that whole experience just brought them closer as friends. I trust her, its just the waiting that's got me. I never want to see her in pain the way I did a few hours ago."

Hoyt turned back to the folder, "Well, if she's asleep upstairs and that's what she needs, then why don't I have a little look over your file. I do happen to know something about investigating crime." Matt smiled.

The two men went over what appeared in this folder. Hoyt did think it was odd that the two research assistants appeared unharmed when the other 4 died. He didn't think it was a coincidence that the 4 originated with L.A. Pharmaceuical when Taylor and Wilkins worked for Hippocrat. He agreed with C.J. that Dawes may be involved, but didn't appear to have any access and the Peterman notations led Hoyt to believe that maybe the department should start its own investigation of fraud and call in the American Medical Association to conduct an official inquiry themselves.

Matt spoke up, "The bigger and more pressing concern here is to make sure these trials go through to completion. Its too big a project to go under, it means too much and would save too many lives. I've been focusing on just catching someone going in or out that I haven't sorted through all this background, and now with C.J..."

A knock at the door interrupted what Matt was saying and he went down and found Carol and Jared, the new beau standing there.


	14. Chapter 14

"Matlock Houston, it is good to see you!" Carol said as she made her way in. She introduced Jared her new boyfriend, an orderly at Woodlands Memorial and Matt took her straight up to C.J., still concerned although she seemed to be sleeping well.

Upstairs, Carol sat on the side of the bed and took her temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure, all with C.J. completely out. She motioned for Matt to come over and whispered "So where exactly was she holding her gut, as you say?" Matt pointed to her upper abdomen and Carol nodded her head, appearing to digest that. "Did she vomit?" Matt shook his head. Carol digested that and then led Matt back over to the doorway where she spoke in a more normal volume. "Ok, well, the pain appears to be in about the same place she was complaining of earlier today. I'll be honest, two attacks like this in one day is not good, but the pain meds seem to be working for now and one of the biggest challenges is going to be keeping her food down and seeing that she gains a little weight. Matt, I also want you to start keeping track of what she eats, there could be triggers for this pain."

Matt nodded, "Whatever you want, do you think our traveling could have caused this? We did go to some pretty exotic locations."

Carol shook her head, "I doubt it, I don't think what she has is all that exotic, I'm thinking its something much more mundane and treatable, maybe her gall bladder. I'll know more when the tests come back and we know she is ready and can stand surgery if that's necessary." They started back downstairs.

"In the meantime, make her take it easy. In fact until we can do the ultrasound that I have scheduled for Monday at 8am I would rather her not drive or walk around too much, just around the house here. She'll need to be at Woodland Memorial by 7:30 and check in with the admissions desk." Matt and Carol looked over at Jared and Hoyt who seemed to be wrapping up a conversation as they approached.

The hospital she mentioned registered with Matt and he thought quickly, "Carol, did C.J. say anything to you today about Woodland Memorial or the guy who runs it?"

Carol nodded her head and recounted what the two talked about earlier, about how money could and frequently did exchange hands between pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and hospitals. Hoyt and Matt both noting how C.J.'s notes made sense now.

Jared, the orderly then spoke up, "The guy is a jerk. He got that job because he was in medical school for a while and thinks he knows everything, but they put him in charge because of his fancy college degree is in business."

Matt thought about that for a second, "So he was studying to be a doctor and then decided to go into business. Most hospitals promote from within, but I could see where, if the hospital wanted to make money it would make sense to hire someone with experience in both. I wonder how far he got in medical school and why he switched degrees?" Matt picked up the folder and found his answers.

"Baby found that he got his B.S. in Biology from Ohio State and then went into the medical program at Boston College. Huh, Carol take a look at this…" Matt asked her.

The MCAT scores were missing, only a notation, _n/v_ was in its place, "What does this mean?" Matt asked.

Carol looked at it and seemed surprised, "I've only seen that once before. I think it means null and void, meaning that the person was caught cheating in some way on the test."

Matt looked at Hoyt, "So he cheated on his medical entrance exams. Carol, if he got through 3 years at Boston College, does that mean it took the board that long to catch it?"

Carol nodded her head, "Yes, it probably does. Which means they probably didn't catch him right away. Someone must have turned him in later."

Matt speculated, "Maybe he feels he got cheated himself and now he's making up for it on the side. Carol, thanks for everything, I hope you won't mind if I call you later tonight, or tomorrow or…"

Carol patted his back, "I don't mind at all, in fact I will expect it. You have a reputation you know, when it comes to C.J. being in the hospital? You are on the 10 least favorite relatives list the nurses keep." Both chuckled and then she turned back to Jared, "I think I'm ready Jared, you ready for that walk?" she asked as he walked up to her and put his arm around her. With that the two left and Hoyt and Matt went back to the file.

Hoyt finished his coffee, "Ok, so what do you want to do now?"

Matt looked at the detective surprised, "You offering your services? I thought us P.I.s were like lightening rods for trouble."

Hoyt laughed, "You are, but this looks big, Houston. If you are right and this medicine could do the good that you say it could, I don't mind losing a little sleep. In fact, I'd like to make this a dual investigation between my department and your firm, especially with this Peterman guy. If a hospital denies one person treatment, that's a crime, just as bad assaulting the person themselves, it's a crime of omission and I am responsible for the public's safety. And from what I just learned about this guy, I don't like him."

Matt nodded his head, "I don't like him either, but we need more than a mutual distaste for the man to bring him down. I've got Uncle Roy staking the place out tonight and I don't want to leave C.J. alone. Why don't we meet up at the penthouse late tomorrow afternoon. I'll be sleeping on and off and will get up early and head over there to do some more work on Baby and we can go over what we have then."

Hoyt agreed and added, "I can talk to some of the guys in the fraud division and maybe get a couple of patrols to help with the stakeout on my end, provide some backup." Hoyt put the coffee cup down on the counter and headed out.

Matt poured another cup and headed up to the bed where C.J. lay sleeping. She had moved around a little but was still covered. He slowly laid down beside her and propped up a pillow against the headboard. He kept the nightstand lamp on low so he could still read. His eyes were never far off of her and she would murmur in her sleep every once in a while. He had grown used to that and silently wondered if one day he would tell her she talks in her sleep from time to time. He brushed the hair off her face about every half an hour just to make sure she didn't have a fever. Around 4am he turned the light off and took her in his arms and held her as he finally drifted off himself.


	15. Chapter 15

C.J. woke up a little groggy but feeling a million times better than she last remembered being awake. She felt two strong arms around her and Matt's chest against her back. She rolled over carefully and found him sleeping peacefully but his arms still firmly around her. She couldn't resist putting one hand on his face, the face she loved more than anything. She closed her eyes for just another minute, taking in the sheer pleasure of being in his arms. After a couple of minutes in the quiet of the morning, she slowly got up, extracting herself slowly and carefully from Matt's embrace so as not to wake him.

Once she was free, she went to the bathroom connected to the bedroom that had been hers for years. Matt told her when he bought the beach house that she should consider this room hers and she had moved things in. Whenever they had a particularly emotionally draining case he would insist she stay with him, or when something scared her and he caught on, or when she had been ill, like last year when she got the flu so bad. It hadn't taken long for the two of them to move her things out of this room and into his though. Still, she didn't want to wake him so she came in here and turned on the water in the large whirlpool bathtub. She decided that a bath was just the thing.

She made her way downstairs and found leftover coffee in the coffee pot that was warm, not hot. She also found that Matt barely touched the dinner she brought him last night. All her medications were sitting out on the counter, meaning he had gone through them and the folder wasn't on the counter. The clock on the coffeemaker read 7am and she decided to start a fresh pot and then quietly went back upstairs.

She quietly walked past Matt, now hugging her pillow, probably thinking in his sleep that it was her or so she speculated to herself with a little smile. She had dressed in another set of workout clothes, something lose around the midsection, and had decided she was staying home today. The folder she was looking for was on the floor by Matt's side of the bed. She figured he was probably reading it when he fell asleep. She went back downstairs to get that cup of coffee, no cream or sugar this time, and then decided to head to a little vendor on the boardwalk for a fruit cup or something for breakfast later. She got the newspaper, took her coffee and it to the balcony and opened it up. She was shocked by the headline.

_Local Chemist Found Dead in Apartment_ on the front page along with a picture of Maxwell Longman. C.J. couldn't believe it. "No" she whispered and closed her eyes, "no, this can't be….Matt…."she looked back in the beach house. She read that article faster than she had read any newspaper article in her life. It wasn't just reading though, she was searching for clues.

It made mention of some project he was working on but downplayed the significance. The reporter speculated that the testing would probably be permanently put on hold now. There was a reference to two research assistants who appeared distraught when they happened upon his body late last night, early this morning after claiming they received a phone call from him. Neither saw anything suspicious they reported and the university they studied at was claiming they were being taken care of both physically and psychologically with counselors on standby. Hippocrat had yet to make an official statement but would do so later today as they _tried to cope with the loss of one of their own._ C.J. ran her hands through her hair. So, her lazy day just got a lot less lazy. There was no way she could just sit here and do research when their client had just died. On top of finding out who did this and why, she knew what that project meant to Matt.

She called up to Murray's office and left a message on his voicemail to personally contact the Foundation representatives for The Houston Foundation so they could offer to Hippocrat whatever resources they needed to continue to work on the project and see it through completion.

Her background work on Max had revealed that he had no living relatives, both parents died when he was young and neither had siblings, so she called down to the M.E.'s office and a funeral home to start the process of claiming Max's body. She knew how Matt felt about these things and knew he would want to make sure Max ended up resting at peace somewhere that Max would have felt was home.

Then she put in a call to Hoyt. The detective answered and sounded more exhausted than normal. "Hi Hoyt, I just read in this morning's paper about Maxwell Longman. Hoyt what happened? The papers aren't saying much and you know he's our client, and more than that, he is…was…Houston's friend."

Hoyt sighed, he knew when he got the call at 4am this morning that it was going to be a long day. His best homicide detective, Warren had a call patched through to his home because one of the people who found this body claimed Maxwell Longman had just been meeting with Matt Houston in the last few days. That was the only thing that struck them as new or unusual. Hoyt, of course, rushed right over to the scene and explained what he knew to Warren who then took the names of the four suspects Matt was looking at.

Upon first examination it would appear that Maxwell Longman had committed suicide. He was still hanging from a rafter when Hoyt and Warren entered. A medical looking file lay on the floor just below where his feet were dangling. It revealed that over the last 6 weeks the drug he was developing appeared to lose its effectiveness.

The two research assistants were holding each other in the kitchen where Max's body was out of view. Patrol officers and EMTs were assessing them to make sure neither had gone into shock. Hoyt rubbed his hand over his face and asked, "So, you two came over because you say Mr. Longman called you, correct?"

The both nodded their heads. Hoyt continued, "And you say that the only thing different in the last week was Longman meeting with a Mr. Matt Houston."

They nodded their heads again, Hoyt continued, "Do you know why Mr. Longman was meeting with Mr. Houston?" Both looked at each other for a second and then Ben Taylor spoke up.

"No we don't. Max…Mr. Longman said that they were just old college friends that were catching up. Something about Mr. Houston just getting married to some really hot chick he knew back in college and that was it."

Hoyt and Warren looked at each other and nodded in a mutual understanding. Warren then asked, "What exactly did Longman say to you when he asked you to come over?"

Ben replied, "He just said that he found something important and that he needed me to come right over, and Madison, and that he would explain when we got here. He sounded weird though, like he was rehearsing a play or something."

Warren asked, "You say he called just before 3am, why would he think you were awake or that you would be able to get a hold of Madison?"

The two looked at each other again and got quiet. Warren prodded, "Guys look, this is a serious situation here, I need to know the answers to these questions. Obstructing an official police investigation is a serious offense…."

The two looked more nervous but Madison spoke up, "Because we're sleeping together. We have been for 3 years now. We met when we were got the same internship 3 years ago. Max knew too, so it wasn't like we were trying to keep anything from him. He said as long as we didn't lose our focus and did our jobs, he was fine with love growing in the lab along with the cultures."

She smiled through the tears when she recounted that but continued more serious now, "Max was so sweet, he really was a harmless soul. He was so torn up about the drug trial going wrong back then. I know it ate at him. Ben and I, well they didn't give us much responsibility since it was our first year, all we really did was basically open up and lock up. I just can't believe he did this…" she said as she started crying hard. "I can't believe he would give up like that….this can't be happening." That was all she could get out. Ben pulled her into an embrace and cried with her.

Hoyt and Warren left and went back into the room where the M.E. had cut Max down and put him in a body bag. Hoyt told him to be thorough when examining the body as he was convinced this was a homicide made to look like a suicide. Mack, the M.E. said he would make it a priority and took the body out. Hoyt told Warren to meet him in the office at 9am. He planned to go by Matt's beach house and pick up that file or call Chris to see if she had a duplicate and the two could use that to conduct this investigation.


	16. Chapter 16

Hoyt told C.J. what he learned the night before. How the two research assistants were called by Max, that he sounded funny like he was reciting lines in a play, and that they found his body when they got there. C.J. stopped writing when he said Max hung himself. Her mind took her back to college when a boyfriend she had hung himself. She blinked and caught herself hearing Hoyt on the phone, "C.J., C.J. are you still there? Are you alright?"

She regained her composure, "Yes, Hoyt I'm sorry. You said he was….hanging.…when they found him."

Hoyt asked, "Are you sure you are ok? Houston told me about you not feeling well last night when I was over there."

C.J. answered, "Yes, I'm fine, I just can't believe this. Is the M.E. sure he was alert, not drugged, when he hung himself? You know that can be faked."

Hoyt sighed again, "Of course I know that and yes, I have my suspicions too. Told Mack to double check just to make sure. From what I read in your little file last night, this doesn't add up. He had you and Houston investigating the tampering with his lab animals and that would have proven his drug was solid. There's no reason for him to do this. Look, can I get a copy of that file? I promised Houston anyway a copy of the cold case homicide file of a 20 year old research assistant who died of potassium poisoning. We could consider it a trade?"

C.J.'s eyes widened, "You and Matt were talking about a case in which a young woman died of potassium poisoning? Was that last year?"

Hoyt answered, "Yes it was, and yes it appears to be tied to your case. I brought it up after Mr. Longman sent me into a state of panic that day. The only real solid evidence we had was the fact that a file that was missing in her apartment, from a drug trial she was working one, ended up at Hippocrat."

C.J. shook her head, 'why would this file end up with Hippocrat, she worked for L.A. Pharmaceutical?' "Ok, Hoyt, no problem. I'm sure Chris made a duplicate. She makes duplicates of everything. I'll tell her to expect to hear from you. Listen Hoyt, did you say anything to Matt about the break in?"

Hoyt answered, "Why yes I did and I was a bit surprised that he didn't seem to know anything about it." C.J. bit her lip and closed her eyes. Oh she was in for it when he woke up. Maybe her not feeling well would soften him a little bit and he wouldn't lecture or anything. If he did though, she was ready for him. She was going to make it very clear that while she loved him and appreciated his overprotective streak, she was his partner after all and he needed to be able to trust her to do what she needed to for the agency. After all, it wasn't like he was all of a sudden going to take extra precautions and not chase down suspects just because he got married. He needed to know she could handle herself and was smart enough not to take any unnecessary risks. She could assess and handle those risks as they came up.

She and Hoyt said goodbye. C.J. finished her coffee and gathered her things, including her medication. After getting that fruit cup she wanted for breakfast she got to the penthouse where she found Uncle Roy sleeping on the couch.

C.J. smiled at Chris as she told C.J. that's how she found Roy, that he talks in his sleep and revealed some rather delicate intimate details about his relationship with Lucy and that she had decided it was best to just let him sleep. C.J. agreed and started to head to her office when she heard Roy stirring.

"What are you doing here?" Roy asked her.

"I could ask you the same thing, aren't you supposed to be home asleep after the stake out last night with Matt?" she asked.

Roy sat up, "He canceled last night, said you were practically dying" giving her a look that told her Matt must have called him upset and she wanted to reassure Roy she was fine.

She walked over to Roy as he sat up, "I'm fine Uncle Roy, I've been having some pains lately and just not feeling well, but I saw a doctor and I will be just fine. There is nothing to worry about."

Roy nodded his head, "Ok, but you have a lot of explaining to do young lady. I walked in here this morning and one very nervous looking security guard fell all over himself trying to explain why he was late night before last and let that prowler in, the one that he said attacked you. Matlock didn't say anything about that last night when I talked to him and I know he would have said something if he knew."

C.J. bit her lip, "He knows now. I really didn't plan to keep that from him…"

"That's not what I think you need to explain, I want to know why you called the police and not security when you knew they were down there and why, C.J. why did you think you were going to trick the guy into thinking you fled, which is what you should have done by the way, and then tried to get a good look at him?" Roy interrupted.

C.J. took a deep breath. She knew Roy could be as protective of her as Matt, maybe both of them needed to hear this, and it would be practice for when she had this inevitable conversation with Matt. "Uncle Roy, how many years have I worked with your nephew?" He started to answer but she kept going, "How many times have I proven I can take care of myself? Don't you think I'm smart enough to assess a situation and make a conscious decision as to how to respond? "

Roy looked a little speechless, "Ok, so you do, but I don't think you need to take unnecessary risks either."

C.J. responded, "Unnecessary? You mean like running off to Europe alone because some contact told you to meet him there knowing good and well it was probably a set up?" C.J. remembered that little episode of Roy's life when Roy ended up faking his own death so Matt and C.J. could find out who was trying to kill him.

Roy moved his jaw around a minute, clearly he was not winning this argument, "Ok, well, I'm just saying this once for the record. Be careful. Ok?" He said picking himself up slowly off the couch. "Didn't see anything during the stake out last night, let him know. I'm heading home, Lucy will help me get back to sleep I'm sure. Tell Matlock to call me later…"he turned back to C.J. "If Lucy really knocks me out, I won't be up til 6 or 7" he said with a smile on his face. "Remember what I said" he said much louder as he got into the elevator.

C.J. made her way back to the office. Hoyt would be by soon enough and she wanted to sort through the files more. Sure enough a patrol officer stopped by and they made the exchange. Max's death meant concluding this case quickly was a requirement now or the drug could get tossed aside and it was too important. Chris made two duplicates of her duplicate and gave one to C.J. She spent the next 3 hours pouring through it and the police file.


	17. Chapter 17

C.J. paced in her office as she thought through everything. Ok, all of this had to be tied to the failed drug study 3 years ago. Dawes was the lead on that and was sneaking around. Maybe he found a way into the lab somehow. Then a light bulb came on for her….that could very well explain the $125,000 Peterman was getting on the side. If Dawes was paying Peterman for a key to the lab, he could sabotage it and keep his career. Perhaps even steal Max's formula and boost his career. The biggest problem though was the fact that Dawes was out of state, in fact all these chemists were out of state a year ago at a conference when the one research assistant died and her death definitely seemed connected.

She sat back down with the file. Ok, so who was in town when that last assistant died and would know enough about medicine to kill her that way, making it look like a natural cause of death? C.J. was getting a headache just thinking through all this. She decided to take it a break, it was noon anyway.

She passed by Chris and asked if she wanted anything from Tuscan Sunset, but Chris turned her down. She said she had a lunch date of her own. At that point Murray arrived and stepped out of the elevator, clearly distraught.

"C.J. I need to talk to you, its important…please." Murray struggled to get out.

C.J. put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Ok Murray, just calm down and come on in and tell me what's got you so upset."

Murray held on to a stack of papers and he pushed up his glasses as he sat down at the table by the hot tub, trying to compose himself. "I got your message about Hippocrat this morning and the donation isn't a problem necessarily. I'm just worried how the SCC is going to look at this, at me, I mean when they find out. I was only trying to help, I swear…" his words came faster with each one.

C.J. told him to take a deep breath and explain, she was a lawyer after all and knew he would never do anything intentionally illegal and everything would be fine, just explain.

Murray took a drink of water Chris brought him and started, "Ok, so I made a donation to Hippocrat 3 years ago. It was a personal donation. I know this guy who works there, an accountant. He told me secretly about their financial problems and how they could go under or worse, get swallowed up by this L.A. Company nobody liked. I met with the head Chemist and for some reason we really seemed to connect. Anyway, I kept the donation a secret and now if I have the company I'm president for donate a large sum of money again…how will the SCC see that? I mean they could claim insider trading right…right, if they see it as an investment not a donation?" he took another big drink of water.

C.J. told him to take another deep breath, "Murray calm down, I do not think the SCC is going to view it that way. Matt Houston is making the donation. Its well documented that he and Max Longman had a friendship going back to college and Murray, did you really gain much financially from your donation?" she asked.

Murray looked down for a second, "No, not really but that wasn't why I did it. I really respect Houston and maybe I wanted to do something like he would do, you know kinda be like him sort of. Are you going to tell anyone about this?"

C.J. patted his shoulder, "Murray, you're secret is safe with me, but it shouldn't be a secret. What you did was very generous and I know Houston would be very proud to know what you did."

Murray thanked her and C.J. headed out to get lunch. She was absolutely starving and some nice rich pasta loaded with alfredo sauce and extra thick garlic bread was just the thing to hit the spot. She walked casually down the street, thinking about what Murray had told her. She really shouldn't be that surprised she thought to herself, but it made her feel good to think that Matt was inspiring people and didn't even know it.

The lunch was good and C.J. found she didn't even need her medication. She ate quickly enough and decided to head back to the office. When she got there she caught Murray and Chris leaving for their own lunch together and they looked at her like they had been caught doing something. She told them that since Matt was conducting stake outs they could have the rest of the day off. They smiled and Chris thanked her.

C.J. smiled and ran up to the penthouse grabbing all the files before heading out to her own car. She knew Matt would probably be up soon and wanted to make sure she was there when he did. She didn't want him hearing about what happened to Max from the newspaper and she knew he was going to need her to deal with this and she wanted to be there for him.

She started feeling nauseous as she drove and even a little lightheaded. She narrowly missed getting hit by a car that stayed a little too long in the oncoming lane passing another car. Her reaction time had dropped, but she was almost there. She pulled in and made her way into the beach house where she found Matt holding the phone and not looking too pleased.

"Where did you go?" he asked, and she didn't really appreciate his tone. He put the receiver down.

She walked up to him, knowing the lecture was coming, but she knew something he didn't. She knew about Max and she knew that was going to hurt him so she decided to not lay down the law yet. "I went to work, and now I'm back, and Matt we need to talk."

Matt walked over to her and put his hands on her arms and looked her in the eye. She could see concern, fear, and maybe just a little frustration. "Yes, we do and I'm not exactly sure where to start. After seeing you in a state of pain I haven't seen since you were shot by that religious cult, you went somewhere this morning. Last night you couldn't even talk to me, why would you think you should drive anywhere or go anywhere. I talked to Carol, and this is serious, C.J. You don't go anywhere until we can get this treated. And you certainly don't take risks like the one you took when someone broke into the penthouse the night before. Yes, Hoyt told me. C.J. why would you take a risk like that?" He said, his voice raising and he was almost shaking her arms.

She closed her eyes, 'Focus C.J.' she told herself. 'Don't get too angry with him right now, he still doesn't know'. So she tried to answer him, "Matt, you're right and we do need to talk about both of those things, but now isn't the time." She took him by the hand and led him to the couch.

He expected a different reaction from her and he was prepared for that. In fact he had even practiced in the shower how he was going to explain to her that she didn't take any risks at all with any aspect of her safety. He was even ready for the counter argument about him and his taking risks. She seemed to be relenting and that wasn't like her, so he sat down beside her on the couch confused.

C.J. took a deep breath and looked at him. She took his hands in her own and told him, "Matt, last night something terrible happened. Max…" she closed her eyes for a second, "Max died last night." She told him softly.

Matt blinked and started breathing a little heavy, "No, god no, C.J….how…." he swallowed.

She squeezed his hands and calmly told him, "It appears he committed suicide.." Matt was shaking his head but she continued, "I agree, I think it was staged to look that way and its way too neat. The police found a research file by his body that indicated that his drug appeared to be losing its effectiveness and according to the police, his two research assistants were called by him to stop by his home. The two assistants found him. They would know about the study 3 years ago and would be able to share that, perhaps further convincing police that it was a suicide. I've already called Murray and told him to have the Houston Foundation offer support to continue the drug trial and have arranged for us to claim Max's body."

At that point she took Matt in her arms and held him. He held on to her tight, the way he always did when he was really hurting. She comforted him in a way no one else could. He even knew he made her mad when she first got there, but she had put that aside to take care of him and meet his needs. She knew him so well, and had even met those needs while he was still sleeping making those arrangements. All this just made him love her even more, if that were even possible. He broke their embrace and kissed her lightly on the mouth, he just held there for a minute. It wasn't sensual, just what he needed to do at that moment. Then they held each other for another hour or so in the quiet.

Her head was resting on his shoulder and chest as his arm and slipped around her waist as they sat on the couch. He took a deep breath and then began asking the questions she knew were coming. "How did Max…die" was the first question.

C.J. closed her eyes again for a second, "They found him hanging in his living room."

Matt closed his eyes and began hitting his clenched fist, the one on the other side of him on the couch. "We have to figure this out, C.J. and we don't have a lot of time."

C.J. turned to face him and kissed him softly on the cheek and said, "I know."


	18. Chapter 18

Matt and C.J. spent the rest of the afternoon going through the files. They ended up back at the penthouse because that's where Hoyt was going to meet them at 4pm. Matt insisted that they drive in together and that he do the driving. He explained what Carol had told him about her driving and he thought about telling her to stay at the beach house, but something told him to take her with him. He did think to himself, that if someone were on to his investigation and searched their office and found evidence of that, they might just decide to ransack his beach house too. He had already decided he wasn't leaving her alone for any length of time again until after she was well.

She still felt a little achy and decided to soak in the hot tub. Matt had done that often enough in the past and she was prepared to be more fully clothed than he ever was in that thing. She had her bikini downstairs in a drawer and went to change.

She found Matt sitting at the table by the hot tub when she came back up. He got up and walked up to her and put his arms around her waist. "I think the hot tub is a great idea. Hoyt and I can go through some of this. I'm glad to see you taking it easy."

She kissed him and told him, "I can soak and think at the same time." She left his embrace and settled in. He continued reading the files and kept looking back at her. Her eyes appeared closed as she laid back.

He looked up for a second and said, "You know, you being in there with only that little suit on can be a little distracting to your husband. Just so you know."

Her eyes remained closed but she smiled. Then she sat up and started to reason everything out, out loud. "Ok, so the primary issue was the tampering with the animals in the drug trial. The failed trial 3 years ago we think is linked along with the death of the research assistant. I was thinking about this earlier Matt and was trying to figure out, who would have been in town for all three and would know enough about medicine to do this?"

Matt looked back at the file. "Well, all our chemists were out of state at a convention when the last research assistant died. Even our current two that work…worked with Max. That still doesn't make sense C.J., why were the other 4 killed and these two unharmed?"

C.J. thought for a second, "Hoyt said something about that trial 3 years ago and that they told him they were new. That it was their first year and they weren't given a lot of responsibility. Maybe whoever killed the other four, only went after them because they knew something, and these two didn't."

Matt got up and started pacing a little, "That would make sense. I don't think this is a professional hit man or serial killer or anything. It seems like he knows what he's doing, but maybe he's reluctant. He only kills for specific reasons. The problem is, he's good. He made two of them look like accidents and if we are right about Max's death here, then he made two look like suicides."

C.J. closed her eyes and looked down and Matt caught that. "C.J. what is it? Are you ok? Are you in any pain?" he asked looking suddenly concerned.

C.J. shook her head and answered, "No, Matt I'm fine. Its just the suicides, those can be faked easily." She swallowed and he sat down by the hot tub. "I had a boyfriend once, in college. He hung himself in his dorm room. I found him."

Matt was shocked, took off his shoes and got in the hot tub, clothes and all and said, "Come here" as he took her in his arms. "Why didn't you get a hold of me when it happened? I would have flown out to you. I wasn't that far away."

C.J. held on to him for another minute, "It happened just before the Cotton Bowl. I didn't want to distract you. It was such an important game and there was more…."

They heard the elevator ding and knew it had to be Hoyt so they broke their embrace as he walked in. Clearly he thought he walked in on something else and turned around quickly.

Matt reassured him that he could come in, he just couldn't resist holding his wife and had decided to jump in the hot tub with all this clothes on and that she was decent enough for him to come in. He kissed her forehead and took her towel. She recommended he go downstairs and change, which he did. She and Hoyt then continued to discuss the case.

"We were trying to figure out who would have had access to everything and the knowledge to carry these crimes out, the drug study 3 years ago, tampering with this study, the death of the research assistants and Max." C.J. explained.

Matt made his way up quickly enough and stopped suddenly at the last step. He looked at both Hoyt and C.J. and said, "Peterman, he had access to everything, he has the medical knowledge to fake deaths the way they were faked, and he definitely has a financial motive, maybe even a personal one."

Hoyt nodded his head but asked, "So you think he's been getting money from Dawes and L.A. Pharmaceutical Company to assist or do the actual tampering with the lab animals. If the industry is as cutthroat as everyone says it is, he could be playing both sides against the middle. Getting money from Hippocrat when L.A. was working on the trial and L.A. when Hippocrat was working on it."

Matt shook his head, "From what Max told me, Hippocrat wouldn't play that game. Maybe the first time was revenge. Hoyt hand me that file." Matt had wondered since he talked to Carol the night before as to who had turned in Peterman for cheating and had a feeling the answer was somewhere in the file. And sure enough something caught his eye.

C.J. picked up on his body language and asked, "Matt, what is it?"

Matt looked up at the two and said, "Samuel Dawes and Daniel Peterman did their residencies in pharmaceutical science and medicine respectively in Boston together, at the same hospital, when Peterman was in his third year, the same year someone turned him in for cheating on his MCAT exam. I'm betting Peterman set him up, sabotaged his research 3 years ago. He had access and would have the knowledge to pull that off."

C.J. nodded but speculated herself, "It would have to be an awfully big grudge if Peterman was willing to kill 50 innocent people just to get back at one man. The other research assistants might have discovered what happened and approached Peterman in some way. That would explain why their deaths are spread out the way they are and why the two working for Hippocrat remain unharmed. They didn't know enough at the time to be suspicious of anything. But I was thinking that Dawes was using L.A.'s money to pay Peterman to gain access to his lab. Why would Dawes and Peterman work together on anything if they are really such enemies?"

Matt thought for a second, "Maybe Dawes doesn't know it was Peterman who sabotaged him then, or maybe he suspected Max. No, I think Peterman was behind the tampering on both trials. The problems are too similar and occur at the same time in his hospital. Peterman was probably just getting whatever money he could out of Dawes before he got caught in exchange for information. The file the dead assistant had that ended up with Hippocrat could only have come from Peterman. Clearly he was providing information from one company to another or at least wanted it to look that way."

Hoyt spoke up, "So where does that leave Dawes now and why kill Max?"

Matt ran his hand through his hair, "I don't know, maybe we should head to Max's place and see if there is anything there that can help us." He looked back at C.J. "You gonna stay here and take it easy? We won't be too long."

She smiled although she had started feeling a couple of those pains again, she managed to hide it well, "I'll be fine and I'll stay here. You do what you have to do." He bent down to give her a little kiss while Hoyt made his way to the door, clearly not wanting to be a spectator here and then the two left.

As they made their way past security Matt leaned over the counter just to make one little statement, "My wife is upstairs relaxing, see to it that she is not disturbed by anyone, and no one, I mean no one leaves this desk unattended, right?" The guard gulped and nodded his head, "Of course, Mr. Houston, I'll take care of that personally." 


	19. Chapter 19

As soon as the men left C.J. got out of the hot tub slowly and went downstairs to change. She started feeling worse and worse and slowly started back upstairs but had to turn around about halfway up because she was going to be sick again. She lost everything that had been in her stomach and it hurt even worse than the last time she was sick in the same bathroom if that were even possible.

She crawled slowly up the stairs, she just needed to get to her medication in her purse in her office. She made it and then took the bottle and tried to get over to the bar so she could get some water. Barely walking and holding on to the counter she made it around and opened the bottle. She was shaking so much that she dropped it and all the pills spilled out on the floor. She grimaced as she tried to reach down and pick them up. Suddenly she felt like her nose was running and went to wipe it off and found that it was blood. She had a nosebleed and fell back on the floor. She laid behind the bar breathing heavy and praying Matt, Hoyt, Roy, Chris, somebody would come up to that office fast.

Matt and Hoyt walked around Max's apartment. Matt took a deep breath before going in because nothing had been cleaned and he knew the ropes would still be hanging in the living room. He and Hoyt got right to work and after searching around the living room, he found a waded up piece of paper way under the couch. On it were three sentences written in pencil that had been erased_. I need you and Madison to come over. I found something. Come over quickly. _Matt took it over to Hoyt, "Is this basically what Taylor and Wilkins remembered Max telling them last night?"

Hoyt read it, "Yes it is, almost exactly and they said it sounded like he was rehearsing a play, it was broken sort of."

Matt nodded his head, "Max sounded like that when was trying to fake something or lie. It just wasn't in him to lie. Someone made him say this to those two over the phone so they would find him."

Hoyt looked it over, "That handwriting matches Peterman's doesn't it? In your file, you have all the papers signed by him for the hospital rental agreement right?"

Matt told him, "Yes we do. We can run back to the office and get that to make the I.D., but why did he do it Hoyt? Why kill Max?" They both shook their heads and Matt took one last look inside as they headed back to their respective cars.

Hoyt appeared to be on the CB when Matt approached and he overheard him say, "Ok, Warren, I'll be over there as soon as I can, just one stop to make, keep the roadway clear until I get there. We want to make sure this really was an accident."

Matt looked confused, "What's going on? You need to run on another case?"

Hoyt shook his head, "No, same case. Samuel Dawes just drove his car over a cliff and I'm not thinking it was an accident."

C.J. lay behind the bar going in and out of consciousness. Sweat was beading on her forehead. She tried to reach up, sit up, do something to get to a phone to call for help, but the pain was so intense each time she tried to move that she just couldn't. It was like dreaming almost, but different. One minute she was in the penthouse, the next in a college dorm listening to Rick, her boyfriend, tell her about how he couldn't live without her. He was pacing in front of her. He had grown so possessive and anytime she tried to break it off with him, he would threaten to harm himself or her or her friends. She didn't know what to do. Her best friend, the only one she could really trust to tell him something like this, well, he was way too busy right now. She knew he would argue and tell her that he was never too busy for her. She also knew that he would know what to do. Although she was a little concerned that his approach might land him in jail, and that was not where he needed to be at all. He could very well sacrifice his future at Rice or anywhere else with a rash action taken in the heat of the moment.

It all came to a head when Rick came over to take her to a concert and she told him she had to finish a paper first. He lost it. He began pacing, accusing her of making up excuses to avoid him and that he had had enough. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the couch where he sat on her holding her down. Then he held her hands behind her and told her they were going to end their lives together and she would never be able to leave him ever.

She was terrified and the next thing she knew he pulled out a needle with something, some drug. She had suspected that he was hooked on something and he injected it into her arm. She blacked out and the next thing she knew she was waking up on the floor of his dorm room. There was a nylon rope around her neck but apparently it had broken and she was on the floor, his however hadn't and he hung over her for hours as it took that long for the drug he gave her to wear off.

Now, years later as she reeled in pain, she cried as she seemed stuck halfway between that dorm room and the present. Finally she heard to elevator ding, but was too out of it to do much more than murmur.

Matt and Hoyt walked into the penthouse and Matt immediately noticed that it seemed too quiet. "C.J." he called out, "C.J. where are you?" as he continued to look around, a sense of panic starting to set in. His eyes surveyed the entire room and he noticed the hot tub was still and her towel was gone.

Hoyt came out of her office and told Matt, "Her purse is still here but its opened." Matt went with him into the office and found that her pain pills were missing.

He ran his hand through his hair. "She's in pain again…where is she?" He came back out and headed downstairs, still calling her "C.J.!" He found her bikini laying in the floor of the shower. He ran into the closet and didn't find her, he ran into the other side of the bathroom and she wasn't their either, but it looked like someone had just thrown up in there. "C.J.!" he was yelling now, his heart thudding in his chest. Something was very wrong here. The security guard told him when he came in that all was well and no one had gone up and she hadn't come down, so that meant she was somewhere in this penthouse reeling in that intense pain again or unconscious or…"

"Houston!" Hoyt interrupted, calling from the penthouse. Matt ran up those stairs and found Hoyt over by the bar on the phone. "Behind the bar, I'm already calling the hospital."

Matt ran over and found her. She had blood all over her face but other than that was pale as could be. He bent over her softly brushing the hair out of her face, swallowing hard trying hard to access where the blood was coming from. He looked over her entire body because for a split second he thought she might actually have been shot when he determined the blood came from either her nose or mouth.

She murmured something but he couldn't understand it.

"C.J. C.J., honey I'm right here, we're gonna get you to the hospital hon," he whispered to her. He felt her head and knew she was running a high fever. He swallowed hard again. He told Hoyt to call Woodland Memorial and tell them he was bringing her in the chopper and to get a hold of Carol La Master and tell her. He ran out to the chopper and fired it up and ran back inside. He couldn't get her to that hospital fast enough. He gently picked her up and Hoyt ran with him to open the door. Once he got her good and belted in he climbed in and took off. It was hard for him to fly as he really hated taking his eyes off her for any reason. His heart was racing, his breath was ragged and he was praying the whole way that whatever this was that was torturing his wife, Carol could extract.

She murmured something as they landed and the stretchers were coming for her, "No, no, I don't want to die, no rick no…" Matt didn't know who Rick was, he never really heard her speak of a Rick before. This fever must be worse than he thought. She must be hallucinating, this was all worse than he thought. He ran alongside the stretcher as long as they would let him, holding her hand the whole time telling her he was right there, he wasn't leaving and how much he loved her. He had to let her go though when they got to those stupid double doors.


	20. Chapter 20

Matt sat in that waiting room he knew all too well. Carol approached not long after he got there. Matt stood up as soon as he saw her. She told him she was going in to check on C.J. and would be back out as soon as she knew anything. True to her word, she came out after about 20 minutes and sat down beside Matt. "She has a high fever and we need to get that down. We're giving her pain medication and antibiotics now. I did the ultrasound in the room and it was as I suspected, her gall bladder. Its about 5 times its normal size, so it needs to come out. Matt, that's a pretty routine surgery ok."

Matt felt himself exhale for the first time and nodded his head. "So you take that out and she'll be just fine, right?"

Carol wasn't finished yet though, "More or less, yes, she should recover quickly enough from surgery. The problem Matt, is that she has developed pancreatitis. Basically her gall bladder has been blocked by gall stones and that caused her pancreas to swell also and that is what's causing the intense pain. So she is going to need to stay in the hospital a few extra days after surgery. We need to get that gall bladder removed now though. Any further risk to her pancreas is not advised, the gall bladder you can live without, but you have to have your pancreas."

Matt took another deep breath, "How soon can you do this, remove her gall bladder?"

Carol smiled, "I already have time in the O.R. so we can do it now. They just need a few minutes to prep it for me. I can take you back if you like. She's in and out of consciousness right now and has been given morphine for the pain so don't expect too much, but I know you want to see her before we take her in. Come with me."

Carol led Matt behind the double doors to where C.J. lay on a stretcher with an I.V. He walked over and carefully took her free hand into both of his and rubbed them. She moved her head to face him and slowly opened her eyes, "Matt? Matt…is that you?" she got out but only in an audible whisper.

He leaned over, lightly brushed the hair out of her face with one hand and kissed her cheek, "Yes, C.J. honey its me. I talked to Carol and they are going to take out what's making you feel so bad and then after you rest here a few days, we'll go back home. I love you, C.J., I love you so much." He said as he kissed her hand, continuing to brush the hair off her face and stroke her cheek. He stayed with her, softly reminding her he was there and that he loved her until the nurses came in to wheel her to the O.R. He stood at the double doors again, watching them take his love off into another operating room and fought back the tears. He closed his eyes and swallowed. These feelings scared him. He loved her so incredibly much. She just had to survive and they just had to have that life he planned.

Hoyt met up with him in the waiting room and patted his shoulder while handing him a cup of coffee. "She's going to be fine. Doctors do this all the time."

Matt took the cup and looked up at him, "Yeah, I know, but they don't do this for C.J. all the time."

Hoyt smiled, "I know, I know" He then tried to take Matt's mind off of everything by sharing what Warren told him about Dawes. The accident did look suspicious, and one witness reported seeing a silver BMW sedan on the road shortly before hearing the crash. One Daniel Peterman owned such a make and model car. Warren, he said was on his way to see if it had any new scratches or dents.

An hour later, Carol emerged, looking upset. Matt immediately felt like his heart stopped but almost jumped out of the chair in that waiting room, "What…Carol…what's wrong…where's C.J.?"

Carol took a breath and composed herself, "She came through the surgery just fine, its just waking her up….she's having some kind of nightmare or something. Sometimes the medication we give can cause that, literally its like patients lose their minds and don't remember it later. Matt, I want you to come back to recovery. I think you are only one who can help calm her down."

Matt didn't need to be asked twice. In fact his pace was a little faster than Carol's. She took him to the bay C.J. was laying in but he could hear her almost down the hall, practically screaming at the nurses to leave her alone. He wove through them to get right beside her as she lay on the bed. Her arms were moving all around her as she had ripped off the oxygen mask and was attempting to pull out the I.V. The nurse on the other side of her was holding her wrist down so she couldn't do anymore damage to it and Matt grabbed her free hand.

He put his other hand on her shoulder and softly whispered to her, "C.J., honey its me, Matt. I'm right here, I never left. Just take it easy, I'm right here."

C.J.'s eyes were not open, her brow was furrowed, but she seemed to hear him and started to move her arms less, "Houston…Matt…he's going to hurt himself…I can't stop him….I tried…Rick…he's going to kill me too…"

Matt leaned over further, "No one is going to hurt you, I'm here, right here and I won't let anyone hurt you. I promise. Just relax and trust me. Take it easy. I'm right here. Just sleep now, ok? I'm not leaving."

C.J. seemed to understand that although her eyes remained closed, "the pain, Matt the pain, please, please, make the pain stop" she said as her head turned to the other side.

Matt looked back at Carol, "Can't you give her something? Morphine or something?"

Carol put her hand on Matt's shoulder, "We already did, I can give her just a little more but that's it. We can't over do it." She turned to a nurse and nodded her head and he left but quickly came back with an injection into her I.V. Matt watched her relax finally and drift off to sleep again.

Matt took a deep breath and one of the nurses brought him a chair. Carol told him, "You know we normally don't let family back in here, but I think we can make an exception this time and you can stay. We're leaving crackers and juice, she needs to eat something when she wakes up for real so we can let you handle that and take care of her. The nurses are right here if you need them. I have another patient to check on, but will be back to check on her in about an hour. Hopefully she will be awake enough to move into a regular room." She patted his shoulder and then left.

His eyes remain firmly fixed on his wife. He had decided he didn't care what the hospital's policies were, he wasn't leaving her side. Not for a very long time.


	21. Chapter 21

Matt stayed with C.J. for the rest of the evening. She regained consciousness a second time and was more lucid. She seemed to recognize Matt right away and as she tried to talk to him, he could tell her mouth was dry, probably from the medication. He fed her ice chips to relieve that dryness in her mouth. "Now just take it easy, I know this isn't a fine wine, but it will do for now. When we get back home I plan to thoroughly spoil you, Mz. Houston." He told her.

She nodded but laid back in the bed, the morphine keeping her sleepy. "Matt, what happened? Where am I? What…"was all she could get out.

Matt fed her another ice chip and put the cup down, "You collapsed in the penthouse and I flew you to the hospital here. Carol got here as quickly as she could and assessed you and determined your gall bladder needed to come out. Because of that, your pancreas was also inflamed and so we just need to settle in here for a couple of days while they monitor it."

C.J. appeared to be trying to shake her head but Matt interjected, "Do not even try to fight me on this, C.J. you are staying in this hospital and I plan to stay with you, just to make sure you don't try to plan an early release."

C.J. shot him a look and replied, "Well, I wonder where I would have gotten any idea as to how to do that." After saying that though, she was back asleep. Matt lightly brushed the hair out of her face again and leaned over to kiss her forehead. He got up and told the nurse he would be right back. He just needed to go tell his uncle and Hoyt how she was doing and then he would be right back.

He got to the waiting room quickly enough and updated both men who appeared to relax just a little at the good news. Hoyt said he was going home, but would be back tomorrow, unless something changed in which case they should call. Uncle Roy asked if Matt needed anything before he left. He told him he didn't think a stake out was necessary anymore given Max's suicide.

Matt rubbed his forehead, the case. He had forgotten about it in the last few hours. "Ok, well, Uncle Roy, I haven't really given it much thought tonight, but we do need to figure all this out. Can you meet me here in the morning? I want to stay here tonight. Tomorrow Carol says she should be doing much better and that the nurses will probably have their hands full between me wanting constant updates and prognoses on her condition and her plotting an escape." Both men chuckled but then Matt got serious, "We do need to make some progress on the case, but I don't want to leave her. Maybe we can hit the coffee shop or the waiting room when she's sleeping and look things over."

Uncle Roy gave his nephew a hug and told him, "Of course that will be fine. Just focus on her and keep your eye out. If we have more deaths associated with this case, that makes it more dangerous boy. Someone might be getting desperate."

Matt thought about that, "Yea, you're right. Dawes and Max both died within 24 hours of each other. Someone could be trying to tie up loose ends." Then Matt had a truly scary thought, "and C.J. may have run across this person just the other night." He closed his eyes.

Roy noticed and got what Matt was saying, "The break in at the penthouse….but whoever it was shouldn't feel that she could identify them. In fact he would know by now if she could or not because he would be in jail if she had."

Matt nodded, "I know that Uncle Roy, but I'm not taking any chances. I don't care what this hospital's policy is, I'm not leaving her tonight. I can sleep in a chair in her room. They are moving her to the third floor when she is able to stand under her own steam and I will insist that I stay."

Uncle Roy nodded, "And what if they insist that you leave?"

Matt looked around and then said quietly, "Then I'll hide in the bathroom, a janitor's closet or somewhere else, but I'm not leaving her." Even though he said it quietly, Roy had almost never seen him so determined.

Roy told him to take care and be careful one more time before he left and Matt turned to go back to C.J.

He found her lying peacefully in that bed when he returned to her. He took her hand in both of his and laced his fingers in hers. She woke again and looked over at his face. That face she loved so much and she could see clearly the love he felt for her. It seemed to just radiate from him. He hands on hers brought her a sense of peace and made her feel so safe. For some reason, she hadn't felt safe in the last few hours. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was this undercurrent of fear that had permeated her body she just knew.

"Hiya hubby" she said with a sleepy smile on her face.

"Hiya sweetheart" he said as he kissed her hand and then took one of his and lightly brushed the side of her face. "Howya feelin now?" he asked.

She closed her eyes for a second and answered, "Like I was hit by a bus."

He smiled and continued to stroke her face, "Do you remember anything?"

She struggled to remember, "I remember being in the hot tub and then going downstairs to change when I felt so sick. Then I got sick and I tried to get back to my pain pills but I got a nosebleed or something." She smiled and looked in his eyes again, "And then I remember you, you were carrying me and we flew…I think…did we fly…in the chopper?"

Matt nodded his head, "Yes we did, I wasn't waiting for an ambulance. You scared me to death when we found you behind the bar."

C.J. apologized, to which Matt told her she had nothing to apologize for. He opened the graham crackers and the juice and got her to eat and drink just a little bit. She complained of nausea which sent Matt right to the nurse's station where they tried to calmly explain that it was normal and she was recovering well now and not to worry. He looked skeptical but went back to her anyway. He found out later, he moved up on the top 10 list of least favorite visitors at the hospital, going all the way up to number 3 by the end of the night.

Around 8pm they were moving her to room 315 and they told Matt he would need to say goodnight and come back tomorrow. He sternly refused and they started to send for security.

Jared volunteered to work on that floor because he knew Carol would be hanging around there because of C.J. and he caught onto the conversation. He pulled Matt aside and offered to sneak him into the orderly break room and give him an outfit. Then he could sneak back into her room. Matt took advantage and by 10pm he was back in her room sitting in a chair in the corner.

Jared made sure the curtain was always in front of him when nurses would come in to check on C.J.'s vitals and Matt could remain hidden. Matt stayed up until around 2am. So much had happened in the past 24 hours. He knew he needed some sleep because they had to figure all this out tomorrow. Too much more time, and that drug trial would be terminated and then whoever killed Max would have essentially killed thousands more with the loss of this life saving drug. Not to mention all the other lives ended because of this killer. A killer that Matt knew could have an office just 5 floors above where his wife now slept.


	22. Chapter 22

Nurses came in and out of C.J.'s room throughout the night. Matt would come from behind the curtain each time they left just to remind her he was still there, that he loves her and that she needed to go back to sleep and not worry. He wasn't leaving her. She chuckled once and told him, "I never thought I'd see the day when you would break the rules to stay IN the hospital." He just chuckled back and kissed her again and told her to go back to sleep and get some rest.

He found sleep himself difficult. When he finally did drift off at 2am his dreams took him back to the penthouse where he found her. He relived finding her and seeing her in such pain and in his dream there was more blood than he had actually discovered. Then he saw Max. In his dream Max was standing beside him as he knelt over C.J. telling him, 'I just wanted to figure it out…I can save her….I know I can.' Matt then turned back to C.J. who was gone, disappeared. Max put his hand on Matt's shoulder and told him, "You have to keep my drug going…she won't make it later if you don't…you know what I'm talking about."

Matt almost fell out of the chair as he awoke, dripping in sweat and breathing heavy. He got right up and looked back behind the curtain to see C.J. She wasn't there though. The I.V. pole was gone. He went over to her bathroom and found she wasn't there. He was about to run out the door when it opened and she walked, rather shakily in.

He took her hand and slipped his other hand around her waist as he supported her body to help her get back into bed. "What you doing? Why did you get out of bed and where did you go?" He asked, trying to keep quiet so as not to get caught, but at the same time concerned, frustrated and relieved all at the same time.

C.J. winced as she started to try to get into bed. Matt stopped her and picked her up and laid her gently on the bed, then moved the I.V. pole around so she wouldn't hurt her hand where it was attached. She took a deep breath and then answered him. He was staring her down on the side of the bed and had taken her hand in his.

She started, "Matt, its almost 9am. I woke up when they brought me breakfast and I ate what I could. Peggy, the nurse who brought me the tray did catch you by the way, but agreed not to turn you in. She said she wished her husband would be willing to break the rules like you did and that I was lucky. I told I was luckier than she knew to have you." He still wasn't smiling though. Ok, C.J. thought, he's really not going to like where I went, here it comes.

She continued, "Anyway, Peggy said I was going to need to start trying to get up and move around a little. She said I should take a little walk down the hallway today. So that's what I did, I just took a little stroll. I'm trying to recover here Matt, so we can both go home."

Matt shook his head, "Carol said you need to stay in here a few days, so I don't care if you can sprint around this entire floor. You aren't going anywhere until you are fully healed and you can complain and try anything you want, but you aren't getting past me. I love you way too much and I am not losing you." He said as a couple of tears escaped his eyelids.

C.J. could see the concern and understood that, but something was not right here. Matt was a lot more upset than she thought he should be. Something else was going on and she put her hand on his cheek, "Matt, what is it? I came through the surgery fine, I'm going to be fine. What is it I don't know? Tell me." She said softly.

Matt closed his eyes for a second and told her about how she reacted when she came out of surgery. How he didn't know how to help her and didn't know who this Rick person was she seemed so convinced was trying to hurt her before. He was about to tell her about his dream when he caught a hint of pain in her eyes that only he could pick up. At that point he stopped and asked her, point blank, "Who was Rick?"

C.J. took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. "Rick was that boyfriend I told you about that committed suicide when I was in college." She felt him squeeze her hand and then turned to face him although it was painful to move onto her side. He responded by taking her hand in his other one and then rubbing her shoulder with his free hand to help support her. "It happened so long ago…I don't really know why I've been thinking about him lately."

As he sat in the chair beside her bed he took her hand back in both of his and rubbed them in a way that always helped her relax. Then he speculated, "Its probably because of this case and Max. What happened when Rick killed himself and why were you the one that found him?" he asked softly.

C.J. took another deep breath and fought to hold back tears. She knew Matt could read her eyes before she even said a word and she knew he already caught on that there was a reason she was the first to report what happened. So she started slowly, "When I met Rick we were both in this awful College Algebra class…" she smiled for just a second as she remembered. "We were both seeing the same tutor."

Matt looked a little confused and asked, "You needed a tutor? I thought I was the only one of the two of us that would ever need a tutor." He saw her smile and was hoping to inject a little humor now because he knew the story was about to be much more difficult for her to recount.

She smiled back at him and continued, "I thought he was so sweet at first. He was always concerned about where I was and if I got home alright after class. He had an overprotective streak just like a certain friend I had at the time."

Both thought back for a minute to the week she moved into her dorm at UT Austin. Matt walked her around campus the first few days, took her down to 6th street to take her out but appeared to be checking things out and told her later she shouldn't be out there after 11pm. Told her if she ever needed him, he could take his father's jet and be in Austin in 30 minutes. After they walked back to her dorm room that last night he gave her a brief kiss on the lips before her roommate waltzed in. He and Bill would show up randomly for the first few months, but after few dinners and getting the feeling that she was putting her studies aside to entertain them, they decided to let her be. Matt was thinking now that they missed something important in her third year.

"We didn't really date even. We both talked about putting this class off until it was absolutely necessary to take it. He told me Austin could be dangerous and at first it just seemed like he was looking out for me."

She looked down and bit her lip. Matt then speculated, "But soon enough it didn't seem like that at all did it? He started to get demanding. Expecting more from you that you were willing to give him." She felt his hand clench just a little bit.

She looked back at him and went on, "Yes, that's exactly what happened. He would get angry when I would deny him anything, and started insulting me and telling me I was lucky he even cared about me. That I was ungrateful and difficult and that he really could do much better than me. He said that the only reason he really was with me was because he thought we were meant to be together, but that I was really a burden."

Matt looked down and squeezed her hand again. He knew she could read his eyes and didn't want her to see the fury in them now at this son of a…that would say anything like this to his best friend at the time, and now his wife. Matt played out in a split second all the different things he would have done to this guy had he known then. First off, he would have comforted C.J. and gotten a hold of his Dad, Bill to get some body guards to sneak around campus and keep an eye on her. Then he would have found this Rick and made it abundantly clear that he was going to stay away from C.J. permanently. He had a couple of different ideas as to how he would have explained that, a couple more physical than others and he knew most would have ended with him in jail probably.

C.J. read his mind even if she couldn't read his eyes. "You would have wound up in jail if I had told you any of this then. I knew you were really building your own separate life at Rice and I couldn't deprive you of that."

Matt looked back at her, "But C.J. you are my best friend, you should have told me. All I ever wanted to do then was help you in any way I could. How many times did you run to me when I needed you?"

C.J. nodded her head, "There's more to it than that Matt. You were with Christina at the time and playing every Saturday and practicing everyday. How could I call you and have you just drop everything to come help me with a boyfriend that had just made a few rude comments to me? I couldn't do that when it started, but I do wish I would have called you before…" she had to take a couple of breaths here and Matt knew the story was about to get ugly.

She closed her eyes again and looked back at Matt, seeing both love and concern now return to his eyes. "That last night he came to my dorm room to take me to a concert. I had a political science paper to finish and I told him I couldn't go. He got angry, more angry than I had ever seen him. I had tried to gently let him down and break it off with him twice before, but both times he said he couldn't live without me and was afraid of what he might do. He talked about hurting himself. He also made comments about how it was my friends keeping me from him and that maybe he would hurt them, so I would take him back. I was scared Matt and I didn't really know what to do and I didn't handle it very well."

Matt shook his head, "C.J. you shouldn't have had to handle anything. He clearly had psychological issues and you weren't the one qualified to deal with them. You did the best you could and you needed to protect yourself at the same time. What happened when you told him you weren't going to the concert with him?"

C.J. nodded her head and told him about him getting angry, pushing her on to the couch and holding her hands behind her. How she felt so helpless and defenseless and shocked all at once. It was all happening so fast and before she knew it, he gave her some kind of drug.

Matt closed his eyes a couple of times and pictured almost each minute of that horror. His mind reeling at the thought that he almost lost her that night and never even knew. He pictured in a brief second how shocked he would have been when he would have gotten a phone call from the roommate he gave his number to, you know, just in case she needed him and wouldn't call. Or Bill would have come to Rice to tell him she had hung herself. It would have defined the rest of his life, he knew. He would have vowed to find out what really happened, because he knew C.J. then and he knew she wouldn't have done that. But at the same time, how long would he have tortured himself and wondered if maybe something had hurt her so deeply that she didn't feel like she would ever recover? That she was only a hundred miles or so away but still didn't feel like she could reach him. His breathing was ragged as he listened to her painfully share what happened.

C.J. was crying by the time she recounted what she remembered, "I just laid there under his body for at least two hours. My legs just didn't want to move and he was just staring at me and I….I…."

Matt got up and sat on her bed and gently took her in his arms. "That's why you got so protective of Chris when she was dating that last guy wasn't it? Oh C.J….I've been thinking about us and our marriage and this just solidified it for me. You have to talk to me, you have to tell me everything. Stop worrying about how its going to affect me because I can guarantee you that if anything did happen to you, that would hurt me more than any bullet ever could." He broke their embrace, ran his hand through her hair and kissed her. "I love you so much, C.J."

She kissed him back through the tears, "I love you so much, Matt."

Carol walked in at that point and all she saw was Matt and C.J. holding each other on the bed, "Come on guys, I know you are newlyweds, but you are going to have to tone it down for a few days. At least until you are out of the hospital, ok?" Carol then noticed what Matt was wearing, "Houston, where did you get those? You didn't stay here all night pretending to be an orderly did you?"

Matt and C.J. just smiled back at her and Matt tried to look as innocent as he could and said he was just stepping out for a moment and would be back. Carol shook her head and C.J. asked if she were going to tell on them. Carol laughed and said no and that she was pretty sure she would be implicating her own boyfriend in the process if she did say anything. She checked C.J. out and told her that as long as she promised to take it easy, their secret was safe with her and he could stay the night again. She was happy with C.J.'s progress and would probably release her after one more night.

She left C.J. in the room alone after giving her another, smaller morphine shot and C.J. drifted back off to sleep.


	23. Chapter 23

Matt went back to the orderly break room and changed back into his clothes. He found Uncle Roy and Hoyt in the coffee shop with a couple of files. They had been going over them when he walked up.

Roy asked first, "How's she doing this morning?"

Matt answered, "Better, in fact she decided to take a little walk earlier without telling me." He told them with a little frown. Hoyt and Roy looked at each other and nodded to each other with a little smile. Hoyt then handed Roy $5. "What's going on?" Matt asked.

Roy spoke up, "We just had a little wager as to how long it was going to take for C.J. to show you she can take care of herself and not let this illness keep her down. I won, I bet she will have already done something before we even saw you." Roy said with a little grin, "She's not one to let anything keep her down for long. She made that clear to me the other day, and if you tell her I said that, I'll deny it."

Matt smiled back but then got serious. "Ok so now that we all know my wife is one determined lady, why don't we work on figuring out who was sabotaging Max's research and plan a way to catch them."

Hoyt spoke up, "We went over the scene of Dawes accident and it definitely appears he was run off the road. Daniel Peterman reported his car stolen yesterday, about 1 hour before the accident. Some coincidence huh?" Hoyt sounded very sarcastic with that last comment.

Matt nodded his head, "Ok, so we know who it has to be now. Peterman had to have been the one to sabotage Dawes' drug trail 3 years ago, probably because he was convinced Dawes turned him in for cheating in college. Dawes either wasn't the one to turn him in or didn't suspect anything foul from Peterman other than your typical industrial espionage and was probably just trying to get information about Max's drug from Peterman. I'm thinking Dawes probably wasn't the one tampering with Max's experiments and if he knew about it, would probably have put two and two together and figured out that Peterman sabotaged his own given how similar the problems were. Peterman has to be making money on this from L.A. Pharmaceutical. He was the only one in town when that last research assistant was murdered. I'm thinking he took the file and tried to sell it to Hippocrat and when they wouldn't bite, he slipped it in to their lab, where you found it Hoyt. That would further convince L.A. and Dawes that Max and Hippocrat were all playing this game. That would keep the money coming from L.A."

Roy spoke up at that point, "Chris and I also worked with Baby this morning and found that Peterman was in town when the other three research assistants were killed."

Matt shook his head, "I still don't get it though, I mean why kill Max…" Matt stopped for a second and both Roy and Hoyt looked at him.

"What is it Houston?" Hoyt asked.

Matt blinked, "The break in, he got our file when he broke into the penthouse."

Roy speculated, "So he knew Max hired you to find out who was tampering with the animals."

Matt added, "Yea he must have, but we weren't tying Peterman to it then, there wasn't even that much in the file about him then, just a notation. And, he didn't go after Max right away. No, there's something else. I just don't know how to figure out exactly what it is though."

Hoyt said, "Well, we do have his handwriting confirmed on the paper we found in Max's apartment. Its not really enough for a search warrant though, so we'll have to keep digging."

Matt closed his eyes and rubbed his neck, "Yea we do, but we're running out of time."

C.J. woke up to find Daniel Peterman standing over her. "I hope you are feeling much better today Mrs. Parsons-Houston." He was holding a small vase with a couple of roses in it and put it on the little table beside her. She blinked her eyes because she recognized him and knew he was a suspect so she knew to be careful. She looked over to the empty chair Matt had been in all night and then tried to sit up slowly.

"I'm feeling much better thank you. I am at a bit of a loss though, you know my name and I haven't been introduced to you yet." She said, she was pretty sure seeing him that he was the one she caught in the penthouse but she was smart. She knew she wasn't in an advantageous position here and wanted to make sure he thought she didn't recognize him.

He seemed relieved, "Oh I'm sorry, my name is Daniel Peterman and I am the Head of this hospital. I try to make it around to all of our, well, more well-known patients just to check on them and make sure their needs are being taken care of adequately. Can I get you anything?"

She licked her lips for a second and responded, "I would be very appreciative if I could get the nurse to get me another little pitcher of water. My mouth is still quite dry and I am hoping to recover quickly."

Peterman smiled and nodded his head, "Of course, of course. I know you are a lawyer so I am sure you want to make sure you don't lose your voice or anything." He said as he pushed the nurse call button. They answered and he told them, "Yes, bring in a fresh pitcher of water for Mrs. Parsons-Houston please and make sure it is refilled every hour or so would you?"

As he did that C.J. was thinking. She had taken that stroll in the hallway earlier and found that Max's lab wasn't really that far away. It was on the same floor just in a small separate building attached by a covered walkway. She could easily get down there and stake it out with Matt. She knew they didn't have a lot of evidence on Peterman yet and she was thinking she could do a little fishing here. Why not bait a little hook and see if he bites.

She spoke up then, "Yes I am a lawyer and losing my voice would definitely hurt my career. In fact I can't wait until I get out of here tomorrow. I was representing Max Longman on a civil suit and he told me he kept duplicates of all his toxicology results in the file cabinet in his office and for some reason they were important. I'm sure I can get a court order tomorrow and go pick them up, but you're right I will need my voice. Going after a company like Hippocrat isn't going to be easy. Thank you so much for the water. I know it will help."

Peterman suddenly looked very nervous and responded, "No problem. So Mr. Longman said something to you about toxicology reports? Did he say what he found, we are all very upset by his death and were really hoping he would have the medical breakthrough he alluded to when he talked to us."

C.J. could see the fishing line bob in her head, so she kept it going, "Well, no, I of course probably wouldn't understand most of those reports, but the suit was directed against Hippocrat and issues of intellectual property. I won't really know anything more about the case until I actually see those reports and what had him so upset with Hippocrat. He kept me in the dark about the details. Even with his death, Hippocrat could be held liable for violating intellectual property laws." There, that just set the perfect trap and Matt couldn't be that upset with her as she made it clear she was no threat to him whatsoever. No this was simple, he was going to have to break into that lab tonight to get those files. In fact Matt should be quite pleased with her.

Peterman suddenly needed to get back to his office but left her with, "Well, don't hesitate to call the nurses if you need anything."


	24. Chapter 24

Matt wasn't pleased with her, not at all. He, Roy and Hoyt all made it back to her room. They wanted to stop by and see her before they left. It was almost noon and Hoyt was going to have to get back to the office. When they first walked in she had the biggest grin on her face and initially that truly relieved Matt, until she told him how she baited a trap for Peterman and that was why she was smiling.

"You did what?" he said with this voice rising. "You mean to tell me you told a man we think has killed over 50 people that you knew one of his victims made duplicate files and that you were the one responsible for obtaining those files? All while you are laying wounded in a hospital bed trying to recover from major abdominal surgery." Matt rubbed his brow. Frustrating didn't being to describe what she was being to him right then.

C.J. stood her ground, "Shh, do you want the whole floor to hear us, he's only a couple of floors up you know. Matt, I set a trap, that's all. I made it clear to him that I wasn't a threat to him in any way. He thinks I don't know anything about what is in those files, just that they are there. I told him I didn't understand the research and the court case was an issue of intellectual property law. He's not coming after me."

Roy and Hoyt stood close to the windows in the room and Roy gave Hoyt back his $5. Matt caught on, "Another little wager? What did we do this time?"

Roy said, "I told him you wouldn't be yelling at her for the next few days because you were so understanding" now sounding a little sarcastic.

Matt nodded his head, but in more of a frustrated manner, "Fine, glad to see you guys enjoying this so much. She just put her life at risk again, and don't tell me you feel like you're completely safe C.J."

Ok, now it was time. She had put off this little discussion long enough, but the wait was clearly over now. So she took a deep breath, "Matt, how long have I worked with you?" He started to answer but she kept going, "How many times have I proven I can take care of myself? Don't you think I'm smart enough to assess a situation and make a clear, smart decision on how best to proceed?"

Roy turned to Hoyt, "I've heard this one before, I don't need to hear it again. Wanna get lunch before heading back to work?" Hoyt nodded his head and they both kind of waved to C.J. as they left the two alone.

Matt took a deep breath, "Yes, I know how long we've worked together and yes, I know you can take care of yourself and you are smart. But C.J. you are not 100% right now, you're in a hospital for crying out loud." His arms now gesturing as he spoke.

C.J. pointed her finger at him, "Just like you were in the hospital when you took down that man that was drugging patients. In fact, if I remember correctly, that was the time your heart actually stopped when they were trying to treat you for that gunshot wound. So why don't you explain to me how this is different, except for the fact that I didn't almost die on the operating table and can walk a hell of a lot better than you could when you planned that little stake out."

Matt started, "Well…that's different…" although he couldn't exactly think of a reason why. Other than the fact that it was his health that was jeopardized not hers back then. He really didn't think she was going to buy, 'its ok because it was me, not you' as a legitimate reason. The look on her face made that very clear. So he looked up at the ceiling with his hands on his hips and then closed his eyes. He really couldn't think of anything to argue back with. So much for practicing in the shower a few days ago, but then he thought he should know better. She was the Harvard trained lawyer after all with a degree in arguing.

So he looked back at her, the woman he loves, looking up at him with those beautiful eyes of hers and he softened. He sat next to her on the bed. "I just don't want anything happening to you, ever." He looked down at her hand as he took it in both of his, "I love you so much and I do trust you." He took a deep breath and continued because he knew he had to do something he always hated doing, admit defeat. "Ok, so you set a pretty good trap. Its simple, he has to strike tonight. I'll talk to Jared, he already agreed to get me more orderly scrubs so I can stay in here tonight and I'll sneak into Max's lab and wait. I'll get Jared to stick around your room so you aren't alone. But you have to promise me that when this is over, you are going to let me take care of you, properly. It takes more than 2 days to recover from surgery and I get to make decisions until you are 100%, fair?"

C.J. nodded her and agreed. She was fine with him doting on her after this was over, but he wasn't staking out this lab alone. There was no way she was going to let a man that has killed 50 people so far get the jump on Matt. No, when she walked around earlier, she found the perfect little spot she could hide out in and neither Matt nor this Peterman guy would see her. She knew she could take Peterman down because she already had once. Then if Matt caught the guy red handed, that was great, she could sneak back to her room before he ever knew she left it and if he did get the upper hand on Matt, she could be there to support him. That was her plan. Then she promised herself she would take it easy.

Matt brushed the hair back off her face and studied her eyes. He could see the wheels turning inside that beautiful head of hers and had already decided to tell Jared to just park himself in this room. If she thought she was leaving to help him with this stake out, she had another thing coming. In the meantime, they just had their first fight.

"So I guess this is where we kiss and make up, hum?" he said as leaned over to kiss her briefly on the lips. Soon it was an open mouth kiss and quickly enough she slipped her tongue in first where he certainly welcomed it. He pulled back and stroked her cheek.

"Yea, I guess so." She pulled him back to her and kissed him again. A nurse came in and cleared her throat.

"I'm not sure you two should be doing that. I'm sorry." They broke their embrace and Matt made his way back to the chair in the room and apologized to the nice nurse and said he just couldn't help himself but would be on his best behavior from here on out as long as she didn't tell Dr. LaMaster.

C.J. chuckled for a second while the nurse checked her vitals and gave her a smaller dose of morphine. She drifted off to sleep pretty quickly after that with Matt holding her hand by her side.


	25. Chapter 25

Matt worked everything out in his head while C.J. slept. He made a couple of calls to Chris just to let people know what happened and how C.J. was doing. A couple of vases of roses had already arrived from the office for her along with a plant from some of the lawyers from the courthouse. He took a little nap himself while she rested. He knew he needed some sleep before the big stake out and wanted to make sure he was fully alert when Peterman inevitably entered that lab after hours.

C.J. woke up after an incredibly long nap to find Matt asleep. That was good, she thought, he would need it for tonight. She got up one more time to take another walk. The nurse quietly helped her out of bed and let her go on her own as she got down the hallway. She got to the doors leading to the covered walkway and went down them. She found that little spot again with a perfect view of the door to the lab. She thought this little square cubicle looking space was probably designed as an information desk at one time, but they had piled all sorts of things on top of the desk. She could even sit and not have to stand the whole time and the I.V. pole fit in perfectly out of view. There were even several extra ones hidden away to the side so she wouldn't even need her own. She also knew how to take that I.V. out if she needed to in a split second.

The two research assistants that had been helping Max were leaving as she was staking out her hiding place and she decided to listen in on their conversation as they walked past.

Ben said as he put his arm around Madison, "I know its hard, but it will get better with each passing day. That's what Dr. Santana said anyway at school."

Madison replied, "I know what he said, but I can't believe the drug trial could just be over. There has to be another chemist that can supervise this now. I told that Peterman guy that we knew a lot more now and it wouldn't be that hard if we just have a respectable chemist come in. We could do this ourselves really. Why was he so against it and why did he tell us to meet him back here at midnight?"

Ben shook his head, "I don't know, I guess we'll find out then. I'm still trying to figure out why Max told us when we left for the day that he was going to play detective like his friend and stake out his lab the night he died. I really don't want to come up here at midnight, but I guess Mr. Peterman knows we have that class that doesn't let out til 10pm anyway and that would make it easier for us. Let's go get some food."

C.J. blinked, 'oh no…they told him they knew more about the trial. He plans to search the lab and kill the two of them tonight. Matt is definitely going to need backup. And that's why he killed Max, Max caught him that night' She started to leave when she saw Peterman approaching. He started to go into the lab when two nurses walked by. He quickly turned around and headed in the opposite direction. C.J. just figured out why Matt and Roy never saw anything. Peterman wasn't waiting until after visiting hours all the time, but took all the opportunities that presented themselves.

She slowly got up and headed back to her room. Matt was still sleeping so she went back to the nurse's station and asked if she could use the phone in one of the empty rooms. She said hers didn't appear to be working that well. She used the one next door to her and called Chris to have her use Baby to find out which chemists were available or could be lured by the Houston Foundation to work off a grant they would provide to finish the drug testing on that compound Max was working on, then to call Murray and give him the information with instructions to do just that. She reassured Chris she was fine and just wanted to make sure she was on top of that for Matt.

Then she called Hoyt who was just about to leave for the night. "Hoyt, listen, Matt is going to conduct that stake out tonight in the lab, but things just got a little more complicated."

Hoyt sighed and reached for the antacids again, "Ok, C.J. I do not want to get in the middle of any debate you and Houston may be having here. I'm sorry, but I gotta side with him on this one. You need to be recuperating not trying to solve a case right now."

C.J. rolled her eyes, "I am aware of my situation right now Hoyt, but Matt is not aware of his. I just overheard those two research assistants talking about a meeting Peterman wants to have with them in the lab at midnight. Right after they told him they knew a lot more about the project than anyone knew. And one of them said Max tried to conduct his own stake out the night he supposedly committed suicide."

Hoyt's eyes widened, "They told you this? C.J. his death is an official police investigation now. Mack discovered needle marks between Max's fingers and found he was given Vodol, its used to knock people out before surgery. It was clearly a homicide."

C.J. responded, "I figured as much and no they didn't exactly tell me." She bit her lip.

Hoyt took a deep breath, "So how exactly did you come across this information? Or do I really want to know?"

C.J. hedged "I just happened to overhear them when they walked past me. They don't know who I am, only Matt went to meet with Max. But, Hoyt this means that Peterman plans to ransack that office, or torture these two until they tell him where Max would keep duplicate files and then kill them. Matt is going to need backup."

Hoyt agreed and told her he would be there probably with Warren and couple of others to help him out, not to worry, and to go back and get right back into bed. She agreed and made her way back. She was completely covered up by blankets again before Matt woke up.

He slowly and quietly sat up and then leaned over her and kissed her forehead. She looked at him and told him he could do better than that. To which he replied, "I don't wanna get in trouble in again and run the risk of moving up to least favorite relative number 2."

She chuckled and he sat back down in the chair. He asked her if she needed anything and she said they were bringing dinner in soon enough. She then decided to tell him about her nap, which was restful. He nodded apparently happy about that. She told him she took another little walk as instructed by the nurses and he nodded again, maybe not as happy but not mad either. And then she told him about overhearing the research assistants and seeing Peterman try to break into the lab. He was no longer nodding.

"I can't take my eyes off you for one second can I?" he said as he stood up.

"Look, Matt…" she started to say.

"No, you look, I think I need to ask for restraints for you to physically keep you in this bed." Then he folded his arms. "We had an agreement…"

"Yes we did, and I'm not conducting the stake out with you right now am I? I took a walk advised to me by my doctor."

"Down a hallway you knew led to Max's lab…and how is it you heard all this and no one saw you?" Matt asked. Man he was good, she thought. It would take him how long to just walk down there and find that perfect hiding spot? Well, with Hoyt as backup she could relent. She was getting awfully tired again and achy so maybe she could sort of sit this one out and just trust him the way she always had to stay safe. There was just something about being married to him now that made all this different for her.

"Ok, so maybe I found a perfect hiding spot, but I don't plan to use it now." She told him and he almost laughed. He gave her a serious look of skepticism.

"Now why is it I don't believe you?" he asked her.

C.J. took his hand in hers and said softly, "I promise. I will stay right in this bed and rest and relax. Matt….its just that I know how much this drug trial means to you and I know you want to see Max's dream live on even though his life was taken away." She looked down for a second, "That Peterman has already killed so many people. I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you. I love you way too much and now that I finally have you. I can't lose you."

Matt sat down on the side of her bed, "That's what I've been trying to get you to understand. C.J. that's how I feel about you." He ran his hand through her hair, "You keep saying I need to trust you to take care of yourself, but you need to trust me too." He put his hand on her chin and tilted her face up to his and told her, "I love being your husband, I love seeing you smile at me in the morning or better yet, waking you up by kissing your shoulder. I love holding you, putting my arms around your waist or your shoulder. Making love to you, C.J. I can honestly say you are the only woman I have ever made love to. I want our lives to be filled with all the happiness you deserve. I love that I'm the only man you let into your heart and you know you are the only woman who ever really came into mine. I'm not jeopardizing that, not for anything."

Despite his vow to keep his hands to himself to the nurses, he took C.J. in his arms kissed her. At first it was one of those sweet brief kisses, but then changed as the pressure on her mouth gradually increased and then a few minutes later his mouth expertly explored hers. It was a good thing that Jared was the one to interrupt them with her dinner tray and not one of those pesky nurses.


	26. Chapter 26

C.J. ate her dinner without too many complaints. She always hated hospital food and she and Matt just looked at each other when Jared left the tray for her with a 'what exactly is this supposed to be' look on their faces. Matt leaned over to her and told her not to worry, he could sneak something in later.

Jared turned around at the door to her room and said, "Oh, no, Carol will totally kill me if I let her have anything other than what is on that tray. She is on a special diet and Carol gets super mad when people go off it."

Matt looked at his wife sympathetically and told her, "I promise I'll cook the biggest sirloin for you when we get you home."

"Along with a bottle of that pinot noir we picked up on our honeymoon?" she asked, as she poked her fork around the brown blob located next to the green blob on her tray.

Matt smiled at her, "Of course. I told you, I plan to attend to your every need once I can get you home."

She smiled back at him, "My every need…I like the sound of that."

Matt moved over and kissed her again. She ate more than a third of what was on her tray. She told him he should go out and get some real food for himself, "at least one of us should eat something we recognize" she said to him. He turned back toward his chair to get his suit jacket when heard her let out a little moan.

He turned back around and saw her struggling to sit up quickly and was reaching for the little plastic oblong tub they left her in case she got sick. Which she did, while Matt held her hair back, then helped her lay back and got her some water. He went out again to talk to the nurses to tell them what had just happened. Despite his protests that they should call Carol right away, they just tried to calmly explain that these were side effects of her medication and that it was normal, meaning not to worry, meaning don't come back out and complain again. At least that was how he took all this.

One of the nurses reluctantly went with him back to her side and took her vitals again. She cleaned up the pan and set a new one out in case C.J. needed it. Then she gave her another small shot of morphine and thought about slipping Matt something to keep that man away from their desk.

As C.J. drifted off, Matt decided to call Roy to get him to come up there and bring him something to eat while C.J. was out and help him plan for the stake out.

Before he knew it, Roy and Hoyt were both there. They had called over to Jared to join them in C.J.'s room. All four men tried to be as quiet as they could so C.J. remained asleep. Hoyt told them Warren would be providing extra support on the stake out, although they would have to remain outside. Jared offered to help, but could only maybe sneak one more person in and they decided it should be Hoyt. As far as Hoyt was concerned, this was official police business. Max's death was a homicide and there was a clear and present threat to his two research assistants. They agreed to only let Peterman get so far with the two research assistants. Neither man wanted these two young people needlessly put in harm's way.

They walked down to the hallway outside of Max's lab and Matt found easily the hiding spot C.J. had picked out for herself. He had to admit it provided good cover and made a lot of sense. Roy would stay there out of view with a walkie talkie to get messages to Warren who had 5 patrol cars waiting outside with officers on standby in case something went wrong.

Jared got Hoyt and Matt outfits to wear to appear to be orderlies. Matt went back in to check on C.J. who was still sleeping. He went over and felt her head. She seemed warmer than she was before but he couldn't exactly go back to the nurse's station because they would see him in this outfit and he would be busted. Jared walked over and felt her forehead and told Matt she felt fine to him but that he would go talk to the nurses about checking her again anyway. In fact, he told Matt, from what Carol told him, they were supposed to check on her and take her vitals every hour. Matt thanked him, told him to stay with her and gave C.J. one last kiss on her forehead before they went to catch the man they knew was their killer.

Those 3 hours between 8 and 11 were brutal. Roy was cramped in that little space barely able to stretch out at all. Hoyt and Matt were sitting on the floor in Max's lab listening to the mating sounds of about 30 lab mice. Matt struggled to keep his focus as the only place he wanted to be at that moment was with C.J. They figured Peterman would show up shortly before midnight but at 11:30 they heard the door open.

Both Matt and Hoyt immediately felt adrenalin rush through them and they readied their weapons and went from sitting to crouching. They heard whispers and what sounded like kissing. The two men silently surrounded the large figure in the middle of the room that was slowly moving to Max's smaller office. Hoyt hit the lights and they discovered the two research assistants with both their shirts undone and turning about 5 shades of red as they scrambled to cover themselves up.

Matt scratched his forehead with his gun in his hand and said, "Ok, so I'm guessing you two planned to go into the office for your own little experiment before meeting with Peterman, huh?" as he lowered his weapon.

Both had their hands up but Ben asked, "Yea, sort of, wait a minute…who are you and what are you doing in here? Wait, you're Mr. Houston, Max's friend. Look, what's going on?"

Hoyt walked over, "I am Lt. Hoyt, L.A.P.D. and this is an official police investigation."

Madison interrupted, "Investigation of what? Wait a minute, aren't you the cop we talked to when we found Max…" her voice trailed off when she mentioned his name and Ben put his arm back around her.

Hoyt nodded his head and then vaguely explained what he and Matt were doing. He told the two they needed to wait out in Max's office and call down to a number Hoyt gave them that would patch through directly to Warren in case anything happened to either him or Matt during the encounter they were sure to have with Peterman in the next few minutes.

Ben then stepped forward, "No, I don't want to wait in that room over there. You said Mr. Peterman plans to try to hurt me and Madison because of this project and you think he killed Max when he caught him that night giving the lab mice NSAIDs. Max was more than just a teacher to me, he was a real mentor and I want to do this, I'm going to do this."

Matt and Hoyt started to argue, but the door handle giggled again and Matt and Hoyt ducked down, but Ben stood just in the middle of the room. He had told Madison to go in the office and she had, but she was quietly sobbing and holding tight to the number Hoyt gave her.

Peterman entered almost on cue and looked Ben up and down and asked, "Where's Madison?"

Ben swallowed and answered, "She wasn't feeling well and stayed home. I figured I could represent both of us. What did you want to tell us? I heard when I got back from Hippocrat that a new chemist could be coming in as early as Monday."

Peterman walked around for a minute as Matt and Hoyt remained crouched down though not next to each other, they could still see each other from opposite sides of the room in between the tables.

Peterman pulled out a gun. Ben sucked his breath and asked him, "What are you doing? Why would you bring that?"

Peterman calmly explained, "I need files Ben. I know for a fact that there are duplicates of the toxicology reports on the animals for the last few weeks. Get them for me."

Ben swallowed and stuttered a little and walked over to the file cabinet, right past Matt who remained crouched under a table. He opened the top drawer and pulled out toxicology files. He was careful to slip out the dated tab before he handed it over to Peterman.

Peterman took the file and scanned it, "This isn't the one I want. I told you, I want the reports from the last few weeks!"

Ben turned around, clearly scared and asked, "Why? Tell me why you want those specific weeks?"

Peterman smiled, he knew he planned to kill Ben before he left so what did it matter if he told him. "Because I'm the one who drugged your little friends here."

Ben just looked confused, "Why would you do that? This drug can do so much good."

Peterman took a deep breath, "Let me educate you on the real world of business."


	27. Chapter 27

Peterman dropped the files on the table right over Matt's head. "You see, its all business, its nothing personal. Hippocrat just wasn't playing by the rules that's all. All I asked for was a little something for helping to guard your little project in my hospital. A small additional fee to ensure the upmost privacy. A hospital is a business after all, but your little company didn't want compensate us for our hospitality here and your friend, Max…well, he was the idealistic type. And idealistic types have a low survival rate."

At that point Madison, so angry and scared at the same time came out of Max's office. "How dare you, how could you? You killed him didn't you…"

Ben looked over at Madison, his eyes pleading with her to go back in the office and hide said, "Madison! No!"

Madison kept coming in to the room though, "No, Ben! I want to hear this….Max was the kindest, most supportive person I ever met. He dedicated his life to helping people. How could you do that to him?"

Peterman answered, "Like I said, it wasn't personal. Although you should have seen him, he didn't even beg me to let him live, only to let you two live. Promised to do exactly what I told him as long as you two were safe. He put his hand right on that table after he called you two and let me inject him…" Then Peterman began looking around and took just a couple of steps forward, "Wait a minute. Why were you hiding in there, Madison? What's going on here?"

Matt finally had the room to stand up right behind Peterman with his gun cocked and pointed at his head, "I'll answer that, but you're going to drop that gun first." His voice betraying his anger.

Peterman turned the gun up and put his hands up slightly and turned around to Matt.

Matt then said, "Now let me see if I understand everything right…you were using your position at this hospital to earn a little additional income from these drug companies. Only Hippocrat and Max were not paying up. L.A. Pharmaceutical was easy enough to get money out of though. How am I doing so far?"

Peterman looked around for a second and nodded so Matt continued, "So you decided to sabotage Hippocrat the same way you sabotaged the drug trial 3 years ago. Only that time, it was personal. You thought Dawes turned you in for cheating on your MCAT and that was your way of getting back at him. You made sure the blood the patients would need during this trial was contaminated. You let 50 innocent people die, all for a personal vendetta. How long did it take the other 4 research assistants to figure it out, huh? And when they did, these idealistic types, they confronted you, didn't they?"

Peterman got a little smirk on his face, "Each time just honed my skills. Research assistants are a dime a dozen, there were at least 100 applicants to replace those 4. In fact you could say that I did 4 new young people a favor by my actions."

Matt felt like he could throw up and his finger on that trigger was getting tighter and tighter. He had to remain calm and use methods he picked up in the military to resist the urge to fire round after round into this clearly remorseless killer. So he tried to continue, "So last time it was personal, but this time it was, like you said, all business."

Peterman then interrupted, "You don't understand. I didn't cheat on that test. All that happened was a friend gave me an advanced copy. I barely got to even look at it before I took the test. Dawes was the one I was sharing a locker with in that hospital my third year, no one else could have turned me in."

Matt then filled in more gaps as it was all coming together for him, "So you decided you would get your big payout another way. You worked your way up in the medical field because you still had that experience and your new business degree allowed you to move up quickly at this hospital and you took advantage of everything didn't you…." Peterman nodded again, "You let those 50 people die, who willingly risked their own lives to potentially save thousands 3 years ago, and you let Dawes take full blame for that. When Max's study started to see some real progress you saw another opportunity to make a little more. You knew Dawes blamed Max for the failed study because you stole that file from the last research assistant you killed and made sure the police found it with Hippocrat and made sure Dawes knew about it. Then you let him pay you for information. Right? He didn't even know until yesterday that you were tampering with Max's study the same way you tampered with his. That's why you killed him, wasn't it? Must have been a busy day for you, killing Max and then discovering you had to kill Dawes too because he figured you out."

Peterman answered, "You are a very smart man, Mr. Houston. But you are going to turn around and walk right out of here." He sounded way too confident for Matt.

So Matt asked him, "Now why on earth would I possibly walk out of here and leave you here to kill these two innocent people?"

Peterman smiled at him, "Because right now, your wife is getting her medication, and tragically sometimes hospitals make mistakes and labels get switched. The accusations you will make out of grief will all fall on deaf ears."

Matt eyes widened and Hoyt stood up, his gun fixed on Peterman and told Matt to run. Which he did, he only remembered running this fast one other time. It was another case at the Beach Club Resort when a serial killer had targeted C.J. and Matt figured it out at the last minute and ran to her to pull her away from her car before it blew up.

He ran to her again, trying to keep his mind from racing even faster. He opened her room and a nurse stood over her bed with a needle and Matt screamed, "NO!"

The nurse dropped the needle so shocked and Carol came rushing in, but Matt already had the nurse's arms asking how much of that got into the I.V. The nurse just stuttered, "I just started…"

Carol picked up the needle and asked if it was the antibiotic she ordered. The nurse nodded her head, still speechless. Matt turned to Carol about to tell her when C.J.'s monitors started going off. She appeared to be going into cardiac arrest.

Carol pushed Matt back and checked her eyes, "fixed and dilated, get me that antibiotic bottle, now!" She started pulling at C.J.'s hospital gown and readjusting the monitors. Before Matt knew it a flurry of people were rushing in, intubating C.J. and getting the defibrillator ready to use. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, it was all happening so fast. He couldn't breathe. All he could think was, "No No No"

Suddenly the word vodol flashed in his mind from the autopsy report Hoyt had shown him on Max and he yelled out to Carol, "I think its vodol." His hands were running through his hair and he was praying so hard, but unable to take his eyes off her as he watch helplessly as a room full of people fought for him to bring her back. He had to fight the sense that she was slipping away from him.

The nurse brought the bottle in and Carol looked it over and looked back at Matt, "I think you're right." She started giving orders to each nurse in the room, many of the words she used Matt didn't understand but within seconds and another injection, C.J.'s vital signs started to stabilize. Matt took several deep breaths as everyone seemed to calm down and she seemed to come back to a more normal state.

He closed his eyes and sank down to the floor, he was sweating and panting almost. Carol walked over to him and knelt down, "She's going to be fine now. Matt, how did you know? What's going on here?"

Hoyt and Roy at that point walked by with Peterman in cuffs, they wanted to make sure C.J. was ok and had walked as quickly as they could with him. Matt stood up and walked over to Peterman and before Roy or Hoyt could do anything, Matt's hands were around his neck. It took Jared and Hoyt to pull him off of Peterman. All Matt could say was, "He killed Max and he almost killed C.J. and he's not getting out of here alive." Matt always pummeled anyone who hurt C.J. and he had just come so close to losing her…well, if they weren't there to stop him, he wasn't sure he would stop himself and not cross that line.

Once they got Peterman out of Matt's sight, and his breathing got back to normal he then filled Carol in on what happened and she told the nurses that she was approving Matt's presence in the room and that he was not to be disturbed or asked to leave. She brought Matt some juice and told him she was prescribing him a few hours of sleep too. He was practically glued to C.J.'s side though with her hand in both of his as leaned over in the chair and watched over her as she slept.


	28. Chapter 28

C.J. woke up and felt like she once again had been hit by a bus. She slowly looked to her side and found Matt with his hands still around hers but his head resting on her bed asleep. She took her other hand and ran her fingers lightly through his hair.

It woke him up and he sat up, clearly uncomfortable especially his neck as he had laid it in an awkward position. He took one hand and put it to her cheek and asked her, "Howya feelin this morning?" softly.

She smiled at him as best she could and told him softly, "Matt, I feel a little worse. I don't know why. I thought I was supposed to feel better each day."

Matt nodded his head and he didn't appear as shocked or frantic as she thought he might when she told him. Actually she almost expected him to run out again and start grabbing nurses to come in. Something was off here, she was missing something.

He explained, "Honey, last night, just before Peterman fell into your trap at the lab, he managed to switch your medications." He looked down at her hand and rubbed it again and then looked back into her eyes, "They did a number on you and that's why you feel the way you do right now. But Carol assured me that you will be feeling much better by the end of the day and that I need to make sure you just stay in this bed all day long. Tomorrow we can start taking little walks again around the hallway."

C.J. thought about that for a second as it was taking her brain a little longer than usual to register things. She asked him, "So he did show up? Are the two research assistants ok?"

Matt nodded his head, "Yes they are, in fact they both stepped up to help us bring Peterman down." He told her about the confession Peterman made in the lab and how Hoyt had called him already to say he had reached a plea agreement with the D.A. last night to avoid the death penalty. Apparently one of the research assistants he killed was from a drug overdose had died in Texas and they planned to extradite him back to their state and try him there.

C.J. nodded her head at all this and then put her hand on Matt's cheek. "I got a hold of Chris yesterday to tell her to find a chemist to take over so Max's drug trial can go on."

He took her hand and kissed it, "I know, I talked to Murray earlier this morning. Gloria Hofferman, Ph.D. will be arriving in a few hours. From what Murray tells me, she and Max dated briefly in college and was more than willing to come and finish this for him. She plans to name the commercial version of the drug after him in memoriam."

Matt ran his hand through her hair and decided to tell her what he had been thinking about all night. "C.J., you were right and I should have trusted you. If we went with your gut instinct last night, you would have been kept out of danger. Roy was just fine in that hiding place of yours. Because of what you found out, we saved those two lives." He looked down, "I'm never going to be ok with you in danger, but I appreciate what you tried to do. You found a compromise, we were going to stake out that lab as partners. You found a safe place to hide and it turns out it was a lot safer than where I had you."

C.J. shook her head and interrupted, "You didn't know he was coming after me, Matt. I probably took too big a risk setting the trap. Its probably what led him to switch the medication."

Matt shook his head, "No, in his confession, he told them about how you practically beat him up when you walked in on him in the penthouse. He switched the medication because of the file he stole. You were another loose end he planned on tying up. In fact when he brought you those flowers the other day, he was about to start to smother you with a pillow before you opened your eyes and looked at him."

Matt rubbed her hand, "I think what we have to do here is come to a mutual understanding. I won't keep things from you, even if I think I should to protect you and we go back to working together on everything as partners in every sense of the word, if you promise to do the same."

C.J. smiled, "I promise." He stood up and sat on the edge of her bed, leaning over to kiss her. She started to try to sit up and he told her not too.

"Just lay back." He said as he stroked her face, "I love you" and then his mouth settled right down on hers. He was careful not to put too much weight on her at all but he wrapped his hands around the back of her head as he kissed her slowly, but intensely.

When he broke their embrace he remained over her and all she said was, "I love you so much, Matt."

The rest of the day he attended to her every need. Roy held down the fort at the office. After two more days of resting C.J. was getting cabin fever and being more of a pain to the nurses than Matt had been earlier. In fact, it appears C.J. made it onto the top ten least favorite patients list, still ranked lower than her husband though who held the 4th position. Carol just laughed and thought 'only he could make it onto both lists.'

Two days after she was released she and Matt were in Houston. Matt remembered a park close to Rice Max used to visit all the time. Across the street was a cemetery. After talking to Gloria, Ben and Madison, it appears the park reminded Max of his childhood days. Apparently it resembled a park across the street from the house his parents lived in when he was really young and it made him feel at peace whenever he got stressed out. Matt knew that this was the place to lay Max to rest. The cemetery was not easy to get Max into as it was considered exclusive, but Matt only needed to make a few calls to arrange everything. He flew Gloria and the research assistants out along with Roy, Chris and Murray.

The service was small and intimate. A few former fellow chemistry and pharmacy students came along with Matt's old Organic Chemistry professor, still at Rice along with the people Matt flew in. There were also a few official representatives from Hippocrat. Matt kept constant tabs on C.J. to make sure she didn't overdo it. After the minister finished and people started to leave, Matt remained at the gravesite. C.J. stayed at his side with her arm around his. He just looked down into that hole they had lowered the casket into. She didn't say anything but then took her hand and rubbed his back. He looked back at her and said, "He didn't deserve this."

She told him, "I know. He did make a difference though. This world is a better place now because of him and what he did. And now his research will live on because of you."

He said through one escaped tear, "I was lucky to have known him and I am so glad I can help keep his research going." She nodded her head and he took her in his arms. She held him because she knew he needed her and he did. Her arms always grounded him. "Come on" he said quietly and they walked back to the limo waiting to take them back to Bill's old estate that Matt still owned. They planned a small informal gathering for Max's friends to reminisce and share stories about how he made his way into their lives.

Some of the stories were funny, like the one Matt shared about his trying to teach a thick headed football player organic chemistry. That old chemistry professor just shook his head but then stood up and told everyone that he was one of the best tutors he ever had. "No one was more dedicated to helping his students", he finally said as he broke down. A couple of fellow students from Johns Hopkins remembered funny stories about how they would try to get Max to go out once in a while drinking with them and shared what Max looked like drunk. Apparently it took only one beer. Hippocrat representatives shared only about his dedication at first, but at the end one made a comment about how organized he research could be, but his office, well, they actually got ticketed for fire code violations because of all the paper in his office. At that point Murray stood up. Chris nodded to him before he did and he took a deep breath before he started.

"I only met Max a couple of times 3 years ago. A friend of mine told me about him and I was looking to do something good with some of the additional assets I acquired…I'm sorry…I sound like an accountant huh…" he paused and then continued, "some of the extra money I was earning as President of Houston Industries. I was really impressed by him and he reminded me of my brother…" Matt held a little smile and he and C.J. looked at each other. Matt kept using references to Murray to describe Max so she assumed they were more alike that Murray must have realized. "Myron," Murray continued, "We found out we shared a love of football and that people always seemed so surprised when we shared that. He told me he 'studied' football one semester at Rice when he had this impossible student to tutor who happened to be on the Cotton Bowl winning team that year." Murray looked over at Matt and then shared what he had kept secret for 3 years.

"That student turned out to be my boss, Matt Houston. He also reminds me of Max in that both of them have shown me how important it is to look beyond yourself and do what you can for those you have an ability to help. So I made a secret donation." Matt blinked his eyes and looked at C.J. who had tears in hers and she and Chris nodded to each other. "I didn't tell many people. I wasn't sure what people would think. Whether or not they would think I'm just trying to be like someone else or worse, an accountant putting money into company about to go under. But Max convinced me, Hippocrat wasn't a financial powerhouse because they like him, valued people over money. But now, I want to make this public and I'm ready to say it. I respect people like Houston and Max and I think we need more of them. We lost Max today, but I decided to do something he would do, the same way I made that donation the way Matt Houston would have. I created a grant called the Maxwell Longman Memorial Grant for chemistry graduate students and the first two recipients are Ben Taylor and Madison Wilkins. Max was so impressed with you two."

The two students started crying again as they held each other. Matt was so taken aback. C.J. squeezed his hand and then let him go as he made his way over to Murray and gave him a big bear hug. "I don't what to say Murray. I didn't think it was possible for me to feel good about anything today, but you just did that for me."

Murray just smiled back and said, "Just trying to repay everything that has been done for me."

Matt turned and lifted up a glass, everyone had a glass of wine at that point and said, "This is for Max…we will never forget you and you and your research will live one. We promise you that."

Matt walked back over to C.J. and held her one more time, checking once more to make sure she was ok. She kissed his cheek and the two held hands and walked around. Matt knew somewhere Max was smiling as he watched all these people around him honor his memory and knew he could rest in peace with his research going forward. Matt knew he would never forget him and now a lot more people who had never met him would be saved because of him.

That night Matt and C.J. made love. Matt wanted and needed her that night, but also needed to be extremely gentle, which he was. His slower love making made some of the sensations more intense and C.J. held on to him as they fulfilled each other's emotional and physical needs. Afterward, C.J. cautiously rolled over onto her stomach and faced Matt, resting on his chest. She said, "Matt, I think you're right. This case had us going in opposite directions and not really working together." They eyes were still locked into each other as she started this conversation and his hands continuously ran through her hair, gently.

"I know…but I know we can work through anything. We just need to make sure we communicate. I will always be overprotective of you, C.J. I can't help it. I always have and I always will be because I fell in love with you when I was 10. But I know you are a strong and smart woman who can take care of herself. In fact, I was thinking about a way to make me feel better about your involvement in the more dangerous aspects of what we do." He said while stroking her hair still.

"Oh, and what is that" she said as she lightly rubbed his chest.

He smiled, "I think we should workout together and I can help you hone your self defense skills."

C.J. smiled, "I would like to learn more. " She looked down for a second, "That whole experience with Rick taught me that it can happen so fast. Anyone can be attacked and before you know it…"

He finished her sentence, "you can get hurt. That's why you asked me to teach you those skills over Christmas that year."

She nodded and said, "I was so confused and I just didn't know what to do and I…"

He stopped her by putting his finger on her lips, "You did the best you could. And in case you are thinking this, no, you couldn't have stopped him."

For the next minute they just looked into each other's eyes in the silence of the night. He brushed away a tear that escaped her eye and then softly and slowly put both hands on her face and pulled himself up to kiss her on the mouth again, a long slow open mouth kiss. She returned that kiss and before they knew it they were wrapped up in each other again. Afterward she drifted off to sleep and he held her in his arms, taking everything in again. He still didn't know exactly what the future held and he knew they still had a path to navigate, but he also knew their love was stronger than any challenge they would face. With that thought, he drifted off to sleep himself.


End file.
